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Si 



A YOUTHFUL 
MAN-O'-WARSMAN 



From the diary of an English lad (a protege of the 
duchess of the fifth Duke of Marlborough) who 
served in the British ixxg^tt Macedonian during her 
memorable action with the American frigate United 
States; who afterward deserted and entered the Amer- 
ican Navy, was recaptured by the British and con- 
fined in a South African prison and, on being re- 
leased, again enlisted in the United States Navy 



BY 

EDGAR STANTON MACLAY 

Author of A History of the United States Navy, A History 
of American Privateers, Reminiscences of the Old 
Navy, Life and Adventures of Admiral Philip, 
Life of Captain Moses Brovjn, U. S. N.; 
Editor of the Journal of IFilliam Maclay 
(U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 
1789-1791), Editor of the Diary of 
Samuel Maclay (U. S. Sen- 
ator from Pennsylvania, 
1803-1809) 



GREENLAWN, N. Y. 

NAVY BLUE COMPANY 

1910 



The Registered Number of this copy is No 



.&^so 






COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 

NAVY BLUE COMPANY 



©C!.A27U;'^9 



To the Memory of 

Rear Admiral Sir Edward Chichester, R.N. 

As an Expression of American Appreciation for His 

Very Handsome Conduct in Manila Bay 

May 3 to August 14, 1898 

This Work is Respectfully Dedicated 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

Prefatory. p^^,^ 

Neglect of the enlisted man — Brave but not given 
to writing — Leech a typical man-o'-warsman — • 
Rear Admiral Mahan's testimony of the value 
of Leech's diary — A protege of the Duchess of 
Marlborough — Importance of the 1812 frigate 
actions — A revolution in naval warfare 15 

CHAPTER n. 

Wanstead and Blenheim. 

Boyhood of Samuel Leech — Narrow escape from 
death — The Turner sailor boys — Visit to West 
India Docks — Life at Blenheim — In the Duke 
of Marlborough's employ — Winter tales of the 
sea — Lady Spencer interests Lord Fitzroy in 
young Leech — " I will take that boy under my 
personal care " 21 

CHAPTER III. 

Aboard the Macedonian. 

Village interest in the new Powder-monkey — A 
deluge of advice — Off for Gravesend — Buying 
a sailor suit, " a prayer-book, a Bible and a 



Contents. 

PAGE 

pack of cards " — Enlisted " for life "—First ex- 
periences aboard a frigate — A poor Irish lad — 
Scenes at Lisbon — The wardroom steward de- 
serts — A brutal murder — Execution of a Portu- 
guese criminal — Murder of the sergeant of 
marines — Prompt execution of the murderers — 
Honorable discharge arrives just too late 32 



CHAPTER IV. 

Life Aboard a Frigate. 

Division of labor in a frigate in 1810 — Peculiar duty 
of the '■' boys " — Arrangement of the " messes " 
— Food and grog allowances — The brutality of 
flogging — " Three hundred lashes through the 
fleet for stealing a handkerchief " — " A crawl- 
ing, servile, cringing slave" — A shocking illus- 
tration — " Happy Jack " arrives and cheers the 
men 43 



CHAPTER V. 

Lively Incidents Aboard. 

In search of the French fleet — Rescuing the ship- 
wrecked — A breach of discipline — Lord Fitzroy 
cashiered — Recapturing a deserter — Impressing 
seamen — Leech becomes an involuntary deserter 
— It happens a second time — Narrow escape 
from the lash — The Macedonian nearly founders 
in a terrific gale — Leech dangerously injured by 
the wardroom steward — In the Sick Bay — A 
grewsome burial — " My turn next? " 54 



Contents. 7 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI. 

Captain Carden's Discipline. 

A band of musicians aboard the frigate — The " sea- 
musician's lot not a happy one " — " Man over- 
board !"— The rescue— A midnight call to "Clear 
ship for action " — Wives of seamen aboard — 
Two births in one week — Bob Hammond gets 
drunk again — Jack Sadler attempts to escape — 
Bob and his " horn o' malt " — Bob is " per- 
mitted " to desert 65 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

A trip across the Atlantic to Norfolk, Va.— Pleasure 
of hearing the English language— Not permitted 
to go ashore — Decatur and Carden exchange 
visits — Joking about a possible battle between 
their respective frigates — Return trip across 
the Atlantic— Homeward bound— Joyful antici- 
pations — Arrival at Plymouth — Off for the 
French coast — Capture of escaped French pris- 
oners — Cutting-out expeditions off Brest — A 
rich prize 75 

CHAPTER VHI. 

A Momentous Naval Battle. 

Importance of the 1812 frigate actions— Value of 
Leech's account of the battle between the 
United States and Macedonian— EuTope3in crit- 
icism of the early American frigates — American 



8 Contents. 

PAGE 

44-gun frigates zuere overvveighed — The de- 
fect remedied — Admiralty compelled to imitate 
American models — English admissions of the 
superiority of American naval construction — 
Confidence among the Macedonians 85 

CHAPTER IX. 

In Battle's Awful Din. 

(Leech's own narrative.) 

Keeping the news of war against America from 
the Macedonians — Escorting a huge East India- 
man to Madeira — Carden's anxious inquiries — 
A shark that was kept busy — A beautiful Sab- 
bath morn — " Sail ho ! " — " What does she look 
like?" — Macedonians in "high spirits" — Amer- 
icans in the Macedonian compelled to fight 
against their flag — Poor John Card — Grim 
preparations for the fight — Opening shots — A 
strange noise — " The whole scene grew inde- 
scribably confused and horrible " — Cries of the 
wounded — Havoc among the Macedonian's 
boys — " That shark ! " — Revolting scenes — " A 
slaughter house " — Dreadful carnage 92 

CHAPTER X. 

Scenes After the Battle. 

(Leech's narrative concluded.) 

" Our men fought like tigers "— " Well done, my 
boy " — Death-dealing splinters — A complete 
wreck — Council of war — "Let us sink along- 



Contents. 9 

PAGE 

side " — Surrender — A sad spectacle — Cockpit, 
steerage and wardroom crowded with wounded 
— " Smeared with blood from head to foot " — 
"How do you do, doctor?" — Heart-rending 
scenes — No time for refined surgery — Survivors 
break into the spirit-room — Killed by ill-ad- 
vised kindness — Unceremonious burials — Sur- 
geons work all night — " Bled to death " — 
Cleaning up — Decatur's magnanimity — " Away 
JVagoncrs, away ! " 105 

CHAPTER XI. 

Triumphant Return to Port. 

Astonishing disproportion of losses — Comparative 
forces — Effect of the news in London — " Sed 
tempora mutantur" — The "Thunderer's" rage 
— "Our sea-spell is broken !" — Arrival in Amer- 
ica — Kindness to prisoners — Prisoners escape 
from a barn — Showing visitors over the cap- 
tured frigate — That "bright English lad" — 
Hoisting the ladies aboard — A scheme to desert 
— Leech and Day take a big risk — Safe landing 
on American soil — Kind treatment at a tavern — 
Sleeping in a bed again 118 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Trials of a Deserter. 

Arrival in New York — Meeting other deserters — 
The banquet of victory — " Save the pieces " — 
Decatur's appearance at the theater — Foxy old 
tars make successful appeals to Mrs. Decatur — 



10 Contents. 

PAGE 

"Don't preach about the king but about Con- 
gress" — Enlisting in the United States navy — 
Embarrassing questions — A tell-tale button — A 
brief stay in Salem, Mass. — Narrow escape of a 
fishing party — Leech ships in the Siren — A 
singular head-gear 130 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Siren's Lively Cruise. 

In company with the Grand Turk — Death of Cap- 
tain Parker — His coffin floats — On the African 
coast — Trading with the natives — Inestimable 
value of water — " Some drank sea water " — 
Hot chase by a British frigate — Saved by a 
shrewd Yankee trick — " The Battle of Senegal " 
— An unlucky broadside — Tricked by an Eng- 
lishman — A rich prize — Burning the Barton — 
An African prince ships in the Siren — A tyran- 
nical gunner — Leech "gets square" with him — 
A new lock on the door 141 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Prisoners of War. 

Precautions against recapture — Sailing for America 
— " Sail, ho " — Chased by a huge seventy-four — 
Throwing overboard guns and ammunition — 
Overhauled and captured — Danger of detection 
— Arrival at Simon's Bay — A painful land 
march in burning sands — Arrival in the Cape 
Town prison— Life in the prison—" Curing " 



Contents. ii 

PACE 

a tyrannical officer — " That Dutcliman Ba- 
diem " — A kind-hearted old general — Leech be- 
comes ill — In the Cape Town hospital — Cured 
of feigning illness 154 

CHAPTER XV. 

Under the Halter's Shadow. 

An over-bearing prison surgeon — Prisoners mutiny 
— "Fire away; it will be our turn next!" — A 
Dutch wedding — Kindness of an English mis- 
sionary — " He shot away my colors " — Trans- 
portation to England fraught with peril — A 
terrible fright — " Your master wants you " — 
Arrival in England — Prisoners paraded before 
thousands of English officers and sailors to de- 
tect deserters — A narrow escape — A mother 
unwittingly betrays her son to the halter — In 
mortal fear of discovery 166 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Homeward Bound. 

Sailing for America — Counterfeit money — Many 
resolutions to quit the sea and become farmers 
— A terrific storm — A night of terror — Arrival 
in New York — Leech ships in the Boxer — Cap- 
tain Porter's discipline — Leech settles in Con- 
necticut — Becomes a peddler and afterward a 
merchant — Joins the church and marries — A 
letter from his mother — Revisits the Mace- 
donian 178 



12 Contents. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Again at Blenheim. 

A long postponed trip to England — Arrival in 
Liverpool — A thoroughly " engrafted " Ameri- 
can — " Innumerable beggars and vagrants " — 
Affecting meeting with his mother — Visiting 
friends of his boyhood — Final parting w^ith his « 

mother — A tempestuous return passage of sev- | 

enty-Uve days to America — Death of Samuel j 

Leech in 1848 190 | 

1 
Index i97 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

"Three Cheers for the Stars and Stripes ", .frontispiece : 

Model of an American 44-gun frigate 18 

A pressgang at work 36 '^ 

Flogging 48 

A boat putting off from an English war ship 56 

English naval officers dining 78 

A midnight boat attack 84 

The United States raking the Macedonian 96 

Carrying a wounded British officer below 102 

View of an English cockpit 109 

An 1812 powder-boy carrying cartridges 122 

An American man-o'-warsman in 1812 136 

Mcdway chasing the Siren 156 

View of a gundeck in an English line of battle ship. 172 

Deck scene in a large English war ship in 1814 176 

An American 44-gun frigate riding out a gale 182 



i 



CHAPTER I. 
PREFATORY. 

Too little is known by the American public 
to-day of the trials, privations and, in many in- 
stances, indescribable hardships endured by the 
enlisted men who so gallantly manned and fought 
our armed craft in the war of 1812. While too 
much praise cannot be given to our officers for 
the splendid work they did while in charge of 
these ships, the " men behind the guns " who 
bore the heat of the day and the brunt of the 
battle seem to have been forgotten. 

Not that this neglect of the enlisted man was 
in any way intentional. It was the logical result 
of unavoidable conditions. Brave, daring and 
patriotic as our men-o'-warsmen early in the 
last century unquestionably were, they were not, 
as a rule, given to letters. Their education as 
seamen was superbly practical but seldom aca- 
demic. They had no official reports to pen and, 
in view of the cumbersome process of chirog- 
raphy in those days, it is not strange that Jack 
neglected to record in black and white the noble 
part he played in our " second war for inde- 



i6 Prefatory. 

pendence " ; and the inevitable result was that the 
great-hearted American public for nearly a cen- 
tury has remained scarce acquainted with his 
magnificent achievements. 

It is for these reasons that the diary of Samuel 
Leech, who took an active part as an enlisted 
man all through this war, becomes especially 
valuable. In 1843 his diary was privately printed 
and a few copies were circulated but the volume, 
long since, has been out of print. In all his 
extensive researches the writer has discovered 
only one copy so that the present work may well 
be considered '' new material." To the courtesy 
of the Hon. William Ward Carruth of Massa- 
chusetts the writer is indebted for this copy of 
Leech's diary. 

It is, probably, the only connected narrative in 
existence of an enlisted man who served in our 
navy in the war of 181 2, and for that reason 
alone, it should be sacredly preserved. Its value 
is attested by Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Ma- 
han, U. S. N., who has inscribed on one of its 
fly leaves the following : '' This book possesses 
a singular interest from its personal testimony to 
conditions, once of common knowledge, but of 
which it is now difficult to obtain specific, authen- 
tic description. A. T. Mahan, March 15, 1904." 

Samuel Leech was a hereditary servant of the 



iMarlborougii Influence. 17 

House of Marlboroii«^li, his father having" been 
I'alct dc choDibrc to Lord WilHani Fitzroy, son 
of the Duke of Grafton ; while his mother, for 
more than thirty years, was one of the trusted 
and confidential maids of Lady Francis Churchill, 
duchess of the fifth Duke of Marlborough. 

It nv^as through the personal influence of the, 
then, Lady Francis Spencer that our hero ob- 
tained what promised to be an unusually advan- 
tageous appointment in the royal navy ; and, had 
it not been for an unfortunate incident (as related 
in Chapter V) through which Lord Fitzroy — 
brother of Lady Churchill — was relieved of the 
command of the Macedonian, the subject of this 
work, undoubtedly, w^ould have remained in His 
Britannic Majesty's service. As it turned out. 
Leech was captured in the Maccdo}iian, deserted 
from the royal navy, entered the American ser- 
vice, was recaptured by the English, was confined 
in a South African prison and. on being released, 
re-entered the American navy and, eventually, 
became a respected citizen of the Laiited States. 
The fact that the present Duke of Marlborough 
has for his duchess a member of a well-known 
New York family, gives to Americans a special 
interest in the truly remarkable career of Samuel 
Leech. 

Another feature of commanding interest in 



1 8 Prefatory. 

Leech's life is his graphic and detailed description 
(as given in Chapters IX and X) of the naval 
battle between the United States and Macedonian, 
fought October 25, 18 12. As a specimen of 
unaffected, yet vivid, word-picturing it will re- 
main a standard. 

This engagement was one of the crucial single- 
ship actions of naval history. Taken in connec- 
tion with the other great frigate actions of this 
war, it resulted in the first revolution in the 
science of naval warfare in the nineteenth cen- 
tury — just as the duel between the Monitor and 
Merrimac, half a century later, relegated the 
wooden fleets of the world to Rotten Row in 
order to give place to ironclads. 

When the naval experts of Europe began to 
study these frigate actions of 18 12 (that between 
the Constitution and Guerriere, the United States 
and Macedonian and the Constitution and Java) 
they, for the first time, appreciated the marked 
advance Yankee ingenuity had made in marine 
warfare; and remodeled their frigates accord- 
ingly — or as the London Times, in its issue of 
March 17, 1814, said: "exactly upon the plan 
of the large American frigates." 

So completely did our 44-gun frigates dem-on- 
strate their superiority over British ships of the 
same class that the Admiralty issued a confidential 







z ^ 



oe 



Admiralty's Strangk Order. 19 

circular, direc.tincf commanders of British frij^ates 
to run aivay from the President, United States 
and Constitution as the following extraordinary 
command will show : " In the event of one of 
his Majesty's frig-atcs under your orders falling 
in with one of these ships [the American 44-gun 
frigates], his captain should endeavor in the first 
instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty's 
ship but, if he find that he has an advantage in 
sailing, he should endeavor to maneuver and 
keep company with her without coming to action 
in the hope of falling in with some other of his 
Majesty's ships, with whose assistance the enemy 
might be attacked with a reasonable hope of 
success." 

Unfortunately, we have little detail of the 
battles between the Constitution and Guerriere 
and the Constitution and Java but, in that be- 
tween the United States and Macedonian, Leech 
has given us a battle scene of lasting historical 
value — doubly valuable because wTitten from the 
enemy's viewpoint — in his vivid narration of the 
awfully destructive powers of the American frig- 
ate, as compared with those of a similar class in 
the English navy. 

Aside from his invaluable account of the United 
States-Macedonian fight. Leech has given us 
many side-lights on the career of our navy which 



20 Prefatory. 

are of popular and historical interest. In short, 
his narrative is one of unusual lucidity and perti- 
nency on the points touched upon and, on careful 
examination, the writer is satisfied that Leech's 
account, in general, may be relied upon. Yet, 
the writer has taken the liberty of culling such 
of Leech's statements as might be open to dispute 
so, it is believed, that the residuum, as it appears 
in these pages, is founded on the solid rock of 
well-established fact. 



CHAPTER II. 
WANSTEAD AND BLENHEIM. 

On the nineteenth day of March, in tlic good 
year 1798, there was born in Wanstead, England, 
a boy. Such things had happened in this sedate 
village (so folk say) before the said " good year 
1798" and the parish register bears out the 
assertion that it has happened frequently since. 

His name was Samuel Leech — certainly not a 
name to arrest attention in these days when blood- 
letting has long since ceased to be the medical 
panacea for all ailments. Neither was there any- 
thing- sufficiently remarkable about the first ten 
years of the Wanstead boy's life to merit a 
chronicle. But there was something about his 
parentage and subsequent career that is of pe- 
culiar interest to Americans. 

Wanstead, to-day, has been swallowed up in 
the gigantic metropolitan growth of London but 
at the time of Samuel's birth it was a lovely 
suburb, reckoned to be some " seven miles froiu 
the city." It was when he was a mere lad that 
Samuel delighted in wandering through its beau- 



22 Wanstead and Blenheim. 

tifiil park, tossing " crums of comfort " to the 
timid deer as they grazed under massive oaks that 
had withstood storms for centuries. 

Often did he pass the venerable mansion, seated 
in the sylvan scene like a queen, to the old parish 
church with its gorgeous stained-glass windows, 
to attend Sunday School and, with his fellow 
scholars primly arranged around the deep-toned 
organ, wait for the curate to discourse. 

But Samuel's greatest delight was the annual 
Easter hunt in Epping Forest when the young- 
sters were permitted to chase the deer over hill 
and dale in hopeless but none the less joyous 
effort to overtake them. When tired of the 
" hunt " the boys would wander through the 
forest, picking flowers, playing games or listen- 
ing to the sweet-singing birds. 

Quite appropriately, Samuel's home was in that 
part of Wanstead called Nightingale Place, on 
account of the number of these birds in that vicin- 
ity. Those were days to which Samuel, in later 
years, always looked upon as the one great " sun- 
light spot " of his life. 

Samuel's father was a valet de chamhre or con- 
fidential body servant of Lord William Fitzroy, 
son of the Duke of Grafton and brother of the 
Duchess of the fifth Duke of Marlborough. As 
Mr. Leech died while Samuel was scarcely three 



Early Boyhood. 23 

years oUl, our hero had only a vap^ue recollection 
of him. 

Indeed, it was while retiirninq- from the funeral 
that Samuel himself came near losin^^ his life. 
Dressed in mourning-, in keeping- with the occa- 
sion, he was coming- from the parish church at 
Walthamstow, where the services had been held 
and, noticing some large boys amusing themselves 
by swinging on the rail of a fence, thought he 
would try it also. The result was that he lost 
his hold and fell into a muddy ditch where he was 
almost suffocated before he could be pulled out. 

Two years after his father's death, Samuel's 
mother became an inmate of the family of Lady 
Francis Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Graf- 
ton and wife of Lord Spencer who afterward 
became Lord Churchill. It was through his 
mother's influence that Lord and Lady Churchill 
took such an interest in young Leech, seeing to 
it that he was placed in a good berth in the royal 
navy. The succeeding Duke and his Duchess 
arranged for Samuel's return to England in 
1841 after his desertion from the English service. 

As it was impossible for young Samuel to live 
with his mother in her new position he was placed 
in the care of an aunt, Mrs. Turner, who was 
blessed with a family of twenty-two sons and two 
daughters. It was while he lived with his prolific 



24 Wanstead and Blenheim. 

aunt and numerous cousins that Samuel first got 
his idea of going to sea. Most of the Turner boys 
were sailors and were constantly going and com- 
ing from voyages so that our hero soon had his 
mind filled with sea yarns and such stories of 
adventure as sailor folk delight in spinning before 
credulous landmen. 

Seated around the bright fireside of a winter's 
evening young Leech drank in the wild stories of 
adventure and hair-breadth escapes in unquestion- 
ing gulps and he soon came to regard the sailor 
as superior to all other beings and the seaman's 
life the ideal of human existence. Nor did the 
fact that three of the Turner boys died at sea 
through hardship and exposure and that two 
more went down in the 74-gun ship of the line 
Blenheim, when she foundered off the Cape of 
Good Hope with seven hundred souls on board, 
in the least abate his desire for the sea. 

Thus five sturdy young men from one family 
perished at sea within the three years of Samuel's 
stay at his aunt's home. Had he been supersti- 
tious he would have augured evil omen from 
the fact that the Blenheim was named after the 
place where his mother was then living. 

When Samuel was about six years old it be- 
came inconvenient to have him at the Turner 
home and he was placed in charge of a widowed 



"A Smaki', J()I-lv Tak." 25 

aunt. This was a sacl cliaii.c:c for tlic larl's new 
guardian proved very unkind and severe ; clias- 
tisinix him for the breaka.c^e of a cup or any other 
sHc'ht accident. Occasionallv, Samuel would earn 
a few pennies by holding: a horse or runnin.c: er- 
rands for neii^hbors, which his aunt would take 
from him as payment for crokery he broke. 

One day a smart, jolly tar, fully six feet tall, 
knocked at the front door. He said that he had 
just returned from that far distant country called 
America where he had met a young man named 
George Turner, her nephew and Samuel's cousin. 
He proceeded to tell many fine stories about 
George and finally asked Samuel's aunt if she 
would like to see him and if she would know him. 

" I don't believe I would know him," said the 
widow, " for he has been away so long." 

" Well, then," he replied, " I am George 
Turner." 

The young man had been away eleven years 
and after visiting his parents had taken this 
method of surprising his aunt. Many were the 
yarns he told and many the little gifts and kind 
words he bestowed on lonesome, heartsore Sam- 
uel. Was it any wonder, then, that the lad came 
to regard sailors as the noblest of human kind ? 

While at this place an uncle from the West 
Indies visited the house. He had been one of two 



26 Wanstead and Blenheim. 

brothers of Samuers mother who had been edu- 
cated in Greenwich for the navy. One of them 
entered the service and, by dint of hard work, 
finally obtained a commission but soon afterward 
perished at sea. The other brother had entered 
the merchant service and, settling in Antigua in 
the West Indies, accumulated a competence. 

One day this uncle took Samuel to London and 
visited the West India Docks. He was well 
acquainted with the captains and they paid special 
attention to our hero — patting him on the head 
and remarking what a fine sailor lad he would 
make and asking if he would not like to ship as a 
cabin boy etc. These flattering attentions served 
to increase Samuel's desire to go to sea and he 
returned to Wanstead more dissatisfied than 
ever with the quiet village life. Soon afterward 
this uncle went to Trinidad where he died. 

It was not long after this that Mrs. Leech, 
tiring of widowhood, married a Mr. Newman 
who was a carpenter employed by the Duke of 
Marlborough and, now having a home of her 
own, she decided to take Samuel with her. It 
was a joyful day when this boy mounted the 
stage coach with his mother and, bidding goodby 
to his relatives, set out on the long sixty-mile ride 
to Woodstock. 

The tediousness of the journey was relieved 



Antics of a Sailor. 27 

by the antics of a fellow passenger, a sailor, who 
cut all sorts of pranks. From spinning yarns he 
would execute a hornpipe on the roof of the 
coach. Whenever the vehicle arrived at the foot 
of a hill he would jump off, run a short distance 
and then spring back again with the agility of a 
monkey — much to the amusement of the other 
passengers and to the no small admiration of our 
hero. 

At Woodstock our friends left the stage and 
covered the remaining distance on foot. Pro- 
ceeding through the magnificent park of Blen- 
heim they passed under the triumphal arch erected 
to the memory of John Churchill, the first Duke 
of Marlborough, by his duchess, Sarah Jennings. 
Samuel was much impressed by the grandeur of 
Blenheim Palace, which was built at public ex- 
pense and presented to John Churchill for his 
victories over the French and Bavarians ; but 
more especially for his great victory at Blenheim 
on the banks of the Danube, August, 1704. 

Crossing the park toward Bladen, Samuel was 
kindly received by his stepfather. He was a 
man in comfortable circumstances, owning the 
house in which he lived ; a stone structure, shaded 
by a noble apricot tree and surrounded by a 
pretty garden. 

Samuel found Bladen and the surrounding 

3 



28 Wanstead and Blenheim. 

country quite as beautiful as that at Wanstead. 
Well-tended farms, flocks of sheep quietly graz- 
ing on the hillsides, expansive fields surrounded 
by hawthorn hedges, massive wheatricks and 
quaint, old-fashioned farm houses with thatched 
roofs met the eye on all sides ; while carefully 
cultivated gardens and numerous wild flowers 
offered gentle, soothing incense. 

The people here were very sociable in their 
habits and gave the newcomer a hearty greeting. 
Once a year they held a great feast called the 
Bladen Festival at which they invited all their 
friends from surrounding towns. The ceremony 
began on a Sunday and for three days eating, 
drinking, gossiping and all manner of games were 
the order. 

Amid such happy scenes time flew rapidly 
with our hero. At the age of eleven years he 
completed his schooling and was taken into the 
Duke of Marlborough's employ as a gardener's 
assistant in Blenheim Park. Samuel's early long- 
ing for the sea, however, had not left him and 
the flame was fanned by tales related by some of 
the servants in Blenheim Palace who visited his 
home. 

One of the frequent visitors at the Newman 
home was a fine, tall fellow, a footman in Blen- 
heim Palace who had been, in his earlier days, a 



Winter Evening Stories. 29 

sailor. He possessed a good voice and wliilcd 
away many an evening- with sonc^s, some of 
wln'ch were in a nautical strain. One of them, 
in spite of its somewhat rueful title, " Poor Little 
Sailor Roy," especially commended itself to Sam- 
uel and he frequently asked for it. 

Another visitor was a sergeant in Lord Francis 
Spencer's regiment of cavalry and was then at- 
tending his Lordship at Blenheim '* on duty with 
leave of absence." This old soldier also had been 
a sailor in his youth and many were the hours 
pleasantly beguiled around the Newman fireside 
on cold winter evenings listening to his stories 
of adventure in foreign parts. 

Samuel's mother also showed that she had 
inherited some liking for the sea for frequently 
she would emphasize these yams in the lad's 
mind by remarking on the noble appearance made 
by the ships she had seen when on a visit to 
Brighton. 

As a result of these converging influences it 
soon came to a pass where Samuel could content 
himself no longer with the quiet life at Blenheim 
and, one day, his mother mentioned the circum- 
stances to Lady Spencer. It just happened at 
that time that Lady Spencer's brother. Lord 
\\'^illiam Fitzroy, was expecting to command the 
frigate Macedonian and was at that moment at 
Blenheim on a visit, preparing to go to sea. 



30 Wanstead and Blenheim. 

It will be remembered that Samuel's father, at 
the time of his death, was Lord Fitzroy's valet. 
Any one understanding the affection (unob- 
trusive and inconspicuous though it may have 
been) that exists between hereditary master and 
servant in old English famihes, will at once ap- 
preciate the strong claim the boy Samuel had on 
the kind offices of Lord Fitzroy. 

So, when Mrs. Newman broached the subject 
to Lady Spencer, it is not surprising that we find 
that she took an immediate interest in the boy; 
not only because of the lad's feudal connection 
with the family but because she held Mrs. New- 
man herself in the highest esteem — having had 
her as a personal attendant many years. At the 
first opportunity Lady Spencer submitted the case 
to her brother. 

Lord Fitzroy at once sent for Samuel. Tremb- 
ling in every limb, the boy was ushered into the 
august presence and to the kindly inquiry if he 
would like to go to sea, gasped : 

" Ye — er — yes, my lord, I would." 

After some further questioning the lad was 
dismissed and it is a tradition in the Newman 
family (many members of which are living to-day 
in or near Blenheim) that his Lordship was heard 
to say : 

" I will take that lad under my personal care 
and see to his future advancement." 



Sam Becomes a Sailor. 31 

Such a hl.qli honor from their licrccHtary lord 
and master was sufficient to overcome any scruj)lc 
the fond luothcr had ahout her hoy venturinjT;- on 
the sea and from that moment it was decided in 
tlie Newman household that Samuel " a sailor 
shall he." 



CHAPTER III. 
ABOARD THE MACEDONIAN. 

This great question having at last been defi- 
nitely settled, namely: that the boy Leech would 
go to sea, everything was shaped accordingly. 
Visits of congratulation seemed to be inter- 
minable. Many and various were the advices so 
generously offered. In fact, the whole village 
seemed to have appointed itself a Committee of 
One to see that the budding sailor was " profes- 
sionally " sent off on his new career. 

While much of this counsel was honestly in- 
tended and, as a rule, painted the future of the 
boy in glowing colors, there were (it must be 
confessed) some doubting shrugs of the shoulder 
and sotto voce remarks dropped that: it was not 
so pleasant aboard a man-of-war after all — even 
if the chick of a powder-monkey were placed 
under the protecting wing of the commander. 
Ominous hints about " flogging " were surrep- 
titiously dropped and other equally harsh punish- 
ments were darkly insinuated. 

But few of these sobering ideas seemed to 
have reached the ear of our hero or, if they did, 



Congratulations. 33 

thev had lost their effect for so full was he with 
joy of at last beinj;- permitted to ^et on his 
favorite element that he was deaf to everything 
save praise for his new calling". 

At last the great day, July 12, 181 o, arrived. 
That it was a " red-letter " day for Bladen it is 
not necessary to say for was not the youthful 
seaman the special protege of Lord William 
Fitzroy, brother of the future Duchess of Marl- 
borough ? The whole village turned out in honor 
of the occasion and amid many honest tears, 
godspeeds and unnecessary advice, Samuel Leech 
(attended by his mother, for that good woman 
was going to see him to the last moment) set 
out from the Marlborough Arms for London to 
enter upon his new career. 

Instead of going direct to the metropolis, 
Samuel and his mother paid a short visit to 
Wanstead where they were very hospitably and 
affectionately entertained by friends and rela- 
tives. Proceeding to London they engaged a 
boat and were taken down the Thames to Graves- 
end where they stayed over night — for it was 
near this place that the Macedonian was fitting. 

Bright and early on the following morning 
Samuel, attended by his mother, visited some of 
the shops in this shipping center and in a short 



34 Aboard the Macedonian. 

time, much to the lad's glory, he was rigged in 
a " real " sailor suit. 

" At last," thought Samuel, " I am a sailor " ; 
and he strutted along the streets in a boyish effort 
to assume the rolling gait of the true man-of- 
warsman, feeUng several pegs taller than nature 
warranted. 

That he should not lack some of the comforts 
of life, his good mother purchased for him a chest 
filled with wearing apparel and, as her last token 
of maternal affection, she gave him a prayer- 
book, a Bible and a pack of cards. 

Thus equipped, mother and son hired a boat 
and, proceeding down the river some two miles, 
boarded the frigate Macedonian in all the confi- 
dence bred of well-assured " influence " with her 
commander. Much to their disappointment, Lord 
Fitzroy was not aboard so the boy was turned 
over to the not too tender mercies of an underling 
who took it upon himself to enlist Samuel in 
the royal navy " for life." 

The lad, however, was inclined to regard this 
more as a compliment than a draw-back and, 
having his mother with him all day to give advice 
about personal deportment and things generally 
not in the least pertaining to the sea — as only an 
affectionate mother can — he passed the happiest 
day of his life. Toward night Mrs. Newman 



First Day Aboard. 35 

bade her son an afTectionate goodby. The lad 
leaned far over the rail as he watched the re- 
treating boat, bearing his mother away, and 
waved adieus to her until the craft disappeared 
around a bdid in the stream ; when he lost sight 
of her — not to see her again until thirty years 
had rolled past. 

The next morning Samuel was put in a 
" mess," the crew being divided into messes of 
eight each, who had their meals at one table. 
This mess proved unfortunate for our hero for 
it was composed of old tars who did not relish 
the idea of being so intimately associated with the 
stripling landlubber. 

One of the men, named Hudson, took a special 
dislike to young Leech and became so persistently 
abusive in his manner that other members of the 
mess, out of humanity, advised our hero to 
change. This is a privilege that was granted in a 
man-of-war, men being allowed to change around 
until they find congenial associates. For those 
unfortunate ones who cannot find desirable 
messes, a separate table is reserved. 

At first, Samuel found it hard to accustom him- 
self to the rough ways of the men about him but, 
keeping a stout heart, he made honest effort to 
please and soon had friends. He had the satis- 



36 Aboard the Macedonian. 

faction of seeing other boys fare worse than 
himself. 

One poor Irish lad, named Billy Garvey, had 
been seized on shore and was compelled to enter 
the ship's company. He knew nothing whatever 
about the sea or sailors and one of his first 
inquiries on coming aboard was, where he would 
find his " bed." His messmates told him to inquire 
of the burly boatswain. That important official 
looked at the greenhorn a moment and, turning 
the huge lump of tobacco into another corner of 
his mouth, asked : 

" Have you got a knife? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" Well, stick it into the softest plank in the 
ship and take that for a bed." 

The poor fellow keenly felt the rudeness for 
he had been brought up in comfortable circum- 
stances. One day he confided to Samuel: 

" When I was at home, I could walk in my 
father's garden in the morning until the maid 
would come and say: 

" ' William, will you come to your .ta, or your 
coffee-ta or your chocolara-ta? ' But oh! The 
case is altered now. It's nothing but ' bear a 
hand, lash and carry.' Oh dear ! " 

At last, everything being in readiness, the order 
" Up anchor, ahoy," was given and, for the first 










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"Charming" Lisbon. 37 

time in his life, Samuel experienced that inde- 
scribable thrill of being in a moving ship. Clear- 
ing the Thames, the Macedonian put into Spit- 
head where she was to take on board about three 
hundred soldiers, who were to be transported to 
Lisbon to assist the Portuguese in their fight 
against Napoleon's army. The soldiers were 
stowed away very uncomfortably on the main 
deck while their officers messed and bunked with 
the officers of the ship. 

After a pleasant passage of about a week, the 
coast of Portugal was sighted and, taking aboard 
a pilot, the Macedonian beat about the mouth of 
the Tagus (which, at the coast, is nine miles 
wide) for nearly a whole day, waiting for a 
favorable breeze ; for Lisbon was situated some 
ten miles up the river and the current was rapid. 
At last, favored by a fine breeze, the noble frigate 
passed up between the steep, fertile banks of the 
Tagus and, passing Half-Moon Battery, shot past 
Belem Castle into the port of Lisbon ; which, at 
that time, was crowded with men-of-war and 
transports. 

As Samuel stood on the deck of the ship and 
looked over the picturesque battlements, cathedral 
spires and towers, the city presented a charming 
appearance ; at least, so he thought. But he 
changed his mind when he took a stroll on shore, 



38 Aboard the Macedonian. 

through the narrow, ill-kept streets, beset at every 
hand by beggars ; and he returned to the frigate, 
satisfied to abide there while she was in port. 

It was while at Lisbon that a " great mis- 
fortune " befel the Macedonian — so her officers 
declared — for the wardroom steward (Mr. San- 
ders) deserted. He had long been in the service, 
was an exceptionally fine provider and knew, to 
a nicety, how to tickle the palates of his masters. 
Unlike many men in his profession, Mr. Sanders 
had carefully saved his prize money, wages, tips 
etc., and had accumulated a comfortable little 
fortune. 

Not being permitted, by the regulations, to 
retire from^ the service he decided to desert and, 
speaking the Spanish language fluently, he en- 
gaged a native boatman to run his boat under 
the stern of the frigate. Passing through one of 
the cabin windows, Sanders dropped into the 
boat and was rowed away — the boatmen con- 
cealing him with their flowing garments. It was 
lucky for Sanders that he was not retaken for, 
if he had, he would have been subjected to the 
severest flogging — or hung. 

Samuel's exact position on board the frigate 
was that of servant to the surgeon (and in time 
of battle he was " powder-monkey," one of the 
lads who supplied the guns with cartridges) in 



Cowardly Natives. 39 

which capacity he was compelled to p^o ashore 
many times on errands. On one of these occa- 
sions he was shocked by witnessing;- a brutal 
murder, in true Portui^uese style. The victim 
had aroused the jealousy of a rival, the latter 
crept up behind the former and thrust a long 
knife, up to its hilt, in his back. It was a 
cowardly attack but Samuel soon learned that it 
was typical of the natives. 

In fact, it soon became well understood that a 
calm front was the safest possible protection 
against a Portuguese. The Macedonians dis- 
covered this on several occasions. At one time 
six marines, not understanding the language, 
trespassed on the private grounds of the queen. 
Some twenty natives rush at them, in a most 
ferocious manner, wdth drawn knives. The Eng- 
lishmen drew their bayonets and awaited the 
onslaught. But, before they came to close 
quarters, the natives thought better of their valor 
and retreated. 

While walking along the streets of Lisbon, 
on another occasion, Samuel learned something 
about their way of punishing criminals. Noticing 
a noisy crowd, he looked up and saw a human 
head with a pair of hands nailed to a barber's 
pole. On inquiry, he found that they belonged 



40 Aboard the Macedonian. 

to a barber who murdered a gentleman he was 
shaving in order to get a beautiful watch. 

It was while the Macedonian was at Lisbon 
that young Leech witnessed a punishment that 
made a lasting effect on his tender mind. Near 
where the frigate lay, was anchored an English 
74-gun ship of the line. It seems that a sergeant 
of marines in that ship has especially aroused the 
anger of those immediately under him by re- 
peated acts of tyranny; and two of the marines 
determined to take his life. 

Waiting for a favorable opportunity, these 
men one dark night when the deck was com- 
paratively deserted, seized the sergeant and, hur- 
rying him to the side of the ship, threw him into 
the river. The tide was running swiftly and, as 
he was securely gagged and bound, he soon per- 
ished; no one, save the two marines, being cog- 
nizant of the deed. It was not likely that the 
murder would ever have been found out had it 
not been for the indiscretion of the marines 
themselves. 

One night, after they had had a day of " lib- 
erty " on shore, they came aboard under the 
influence of liquor and were so loud in discussing 
the details of the foul act and in congratulating 
themselves in having rid the ship of the tyrant, 
that they were overheard by an officer. 



First Christmas Ai-loat. 41 

A conrt-martial was convened, the two marines 
were tried and found i^uilty. It was an offense 
that admitted of no delay or triHini^ for it 
touched upon tlie hfe of discipHne in a war ship. 
On the following mornin^q". the entire ship's com- 
pany was assembled on the main deck. The two 
criminals, with halters around their necks, were 
placed under yard-arms and two guns were fired. 
When the smoke had cleared away, two human 
bodies were seen dangling at a dizzy height and, 
in a few moments, all was again quiet — two lives 
had been snuffed out. Only the day before, a 
letter had arrived honorably discharging from 
the service one of the men executed. 

The first Christmas aboard the Macedonian 
for our hero, tended largely to chill his ardor for 
the service. " On this day," said Leech in his 
diary, " the men were permitted to have full 
swing. Drunkeness ruled the ship. Nearly every 
man, with most of the officers, was in a state of 
beastly intoxication by night. 

" Some were fighting but were so insensibly 
drunk that they hardly knew whether they struck 
the guns or their opponents. Yonder, a party 
was singing bacchanalian songs, such as they 
would not have been permitted to do aboard any 
ship under normal conditions. All were laugh- 
ing, cursing, swearing or hallooing. Confusion 



42 Aboard the Macedonian. 

reigned in glorious triumph ; it was the very 
chaos of humanity. Had we been at sea, a 
sudden gale must have proved our destruction. 
Had we been exposed to sudden attack from an 
enemy's vessel, we would have fallen an easy 
prey — just as the poor Hessians at Trenton fell 
before the well-timed blow struck by Washington, 
Christmas night, 1776." 






CHAPTER IV. 
LIFE ABOARD A FRIGATE. 

In tlicse days when war ships are built of steel, 
with every imag;inable contrivance of modern 
invention going into their equipment and arma- 
ment, much of the old-time romance of sea life 
is lost. It was a very different condition that 
Samuel found when he became fairly settled in 
the frigate Macedonian. Here, he discovered 
an isolated community, cut off for the time being 
from the rest of the world and governed by a 
code of regulations peculiar to itself. 

He soon learned that every man in that great 
ship's company had a certain task alotted ex- 
clusively to him and, on its proper performance, 
depended his good standing on the frigate's 
merit-roll. One set of men (called topmen) was 
assigned to the duty of handling the sails aloft. 
They were divided into three divisions namely, 
fore- main- and mizzen-topmen, according to the 
number of masts in the ship. It was their duty 
to ascend their respective masts and to take in, 
reef or let out sails. 



I 



44 Life Aboard a Frigate. 

Assisting these topmen was a corresponding 
set of men who handled the sails from the deck. 
They, also, were divided according to the number 
of masts and were called forecastle men, waisters 
(or mainmast men) and the after-guard or 
those attending to the last (or mizzen) mast in a 
three-masted ship. They looked after the courses 
(or lowest sails in a ship), set or took in the jibs, 
lower studding sails and spanker ; and were re- 
quired to coil up or properly replace all ropes on 
deck after they had been used. 

Another set of men, called scavengers, were re- 
quired to keep the decks clean ; that is, .to sweep 
up and clear away all dirt or refuse from any 
part of the ship and throw it overboard. 

Then came the " boys," among whom Samuel 
found himself enlisted. They acted mostly as 
servants for officers and there were from twenty 
to forty of them in each frigate. The entire ship's 
company (with the exception of the commander, 
purser, surgeon and a few other officers and the 
boys) were divided into two watches, called the 
larboard (port) and starboard watch, which re- 
lieved each other alternately so that when at sea, 
one watch was constantly on duty. 

Every evening the entire ship's company was 
drilled at the guns. When the drummer beat to 
quarters, every man and boy hastened to his 



Division of Labor. 45 

prescribed station. There were twenty- four guns 
in each of the broadsides of the ordinary British 
frigate in those days, eiglit men and a boy being 
assigned to each ])icce : the men to load, fire, 
sponge and handle the cannon while the boy was 
to run to and from the gun to the magazine, to 
secure supplies of ammunition. 

Besides the men and boys mentioned, there 
were from thirty to forty marines (or soldiers 
who serve aboard ship) in every frigate. They 
acted as the police, upholding the authority of 
the officers, standing guard at various points 
and, in time of battle, some of them were placed 
in the rigging so as to attack the enemy with 
their muskets. 

The crew slept in hammocks, swung on the 
berth deck (or that just below the gun or main 
deck) and, when called to action, they sprang up, 
dressed, rolled up their hammocks with a rapidity 
that a landman could hardly believe possible — 
each hainmock being numbered and placed in the 
bulwark nettings which had a corresponding 
number; so that, even on the darkest night, the 
men knew exactly where to place them. 

It was some time before Samuel became accus- 
tomed to the food aboard ship — it being so differ- 
ent from that he had had on shore. While in 
port, the men had fresh bread and meat but, at 



46 Life Aboard a Frigate. 

sea, they were confined to salt pork, hard biscuits 
and pea soup. Once a week they had flour and 
raisins with which they made a pudding called 
" plum duff." 

While eating, the men were divided into messes 
of eight, each mess having its cook who drew the 
allowances, cooked the meals and washed the 
" kids " or eating utensils. This cook also drew 
the grog or liquor for the men, which consisted 
of a gill of rum per man. This was served at 
noon every day, under the mistaken idea that it 
made the men stout, hardy and brave. At four 
o'clock every afternoon every man received half 
a pint of wine. 

In the American service this, worse than use- 
less '* grog," was soon done away with and it is 
related that when the Constitution went into 
battle with the Cyane and Levant, some officer 
thought he was doing right by offering our 
sailors a tub with which to " brace up their 
courage." The Yankee tars kicked the tub over 
saying that they needed no " Dutch courage " in 
entering a fight. 

Samuel had not been in the Macedonian long 
before he was called upon to witness that most 
brutal and degrading of punishments — flogging. 
While it was practiced in other European navies 
of that day with even greater severity than in 



Severe Punishment. 47 

the British, it was sufficiently cruel in llie latter 
to deserve the brand of condemnation. Although 
the details of this form of punishment are re- 
volting, it will be necessary to give some descrip- 
tion of it, if the reader is to fully appreciate the 
dreadful anxieties our hero passed through after 
his desertion from the royal navy and subsequent 
capture by the English. 

One of the Macedonian's midshipmen was 
named Gale, whom Samuel describes as a " ras- 
cally, unprincipled fellow." Finding his handker- 
chief one day in the possession of a seaman, Gale 
accused him of theft — although the tar protested 
that he had found it under his hammock ; which 
was quite possible as the midshipmen often passed 
through the berth deck on inspection and other 
duties. The case was reported, a court-martial 
convened and Captain Garden sentenced the un- 
fortunate seaman to receive three hundred lashes 
through the fleet and imprisonment for one year! 

To be sure, stealing, in a man-of-war is one 
of the gravest petty offenses but, in this case, the 
crime was a very long way from fitting the pun- 
ishment — especially as there was reasonable doubt 
of intentional theft. 

On the day appointed the prisoner was taken 
into the frigate's launch. This boat had been 
rigged for the occasion with poles and grating 



48 Life Aboard a Frigate. 

to which the prisoner, stripped to the waist, was 
firmly bound at his wrists and ankles with rope. 
The Macedonian's surgeon took his place in the 
launch, so as to determine when nature had 
reached the extreme limit of endurance and a 
boat from every ship in the fleet attended and was 
connected by a tow-line with the " execution " 
launch — so as to give greater humiliation to the 
prisoner. 

These preliminaries being completed, the crew 
of the victim's ship manned the rigging to better 
view the proceedings — for the ordeal was de- 
signed as a warning for them also. At the word 
from the officer in charge, the Macedonian's 
boatswain, with coat off and sleeves rolled up, 
carefully spread out the nine cords of the " cat " 
or whip and brought it down with all his strength 
on the bare back of the victim. The flesh crept 
and reddened. Lash followed lash with nothing 
to break the awful silence save the swish of the 
nine cords cutting through the air and landing 
with a sickening thud on human flesh, or the 
agonizing cries of the prisoner. 

In order that the blows might be delivered with 
undiminished vigor to the last, the boatswain, on 
completing one dozen lashes, handed the brutal 
instrument to one of his mates ; they delivering 



A Ghastly SriicxACLE. 49 

one dozen lashes each. Tlic first sixty lashes 
were given alongside the Macedonian, in con- 
formity with the custom of giving the greatest 
number of blows alongside the prisoner's shij) 
so that his gory back might strike terror in the 
crews of the other ships. 

By this time the prisoner's back had been 
lacerated beyond description, the flesh resembling 
" roasted meat, burned nearly black before a 
scorching fire," as Samuel described it. His 
shirt was now thrown over his wounds, the boat- 
swain and mates returned to their ship, all hands 
were piped down ; and as the procession pro- 
ceeded to the next ship, the drummer beat the 
Rogue's March. 

At the next man-of-war, the crew manned the 
yards and rigging as before and her boatswain 
and his mates descended into the launch, cat in 
hand. Removing his shirt, he revealed the 
ghastly spectacle to his shipmates aloft. Then 
they proceeded to deliver one, two or three dozen 
lashes, according to the number of ships in the 
fleet. 

This horrible drama was to be enacted at the 
side of every ship, until the three hundred lashes 
were given. In this case, however, the attending 
surgeon, at the end of two hundred and twenty 



50 Life Aboard a Frigate. 

blows, pronounced the prisoner unfit to endure 
any more. Galled, bruised and agonized as he 
was, he begged them to deliver the remaining, 
so that he would not again be compelled to pass 
through the degrading ordeal. His request was 
denied. Taken aboard the Macedonian the sur- 
geon dressed the wounds and, when partially 
healed (for human flesh could never recover from 
such mutilation) the other eighty lashes were 
delivered before the year of imprisonment began. 

Thus the mangled wretch was ruined for life, 
broken in spirit, all sense of self-respect gone — to 
be for all his remaining days a crawling, servile, 
cringing slave to the beck and nod of his fellow 
men; ready, with sullen alacrity, to obey their 
slightest wish. 

This, of course, was a case of extreme severity 
but the punishment of " flogging through the 
fleet " was not uncommon in the British or Con- 
tinental navies of that day. When the United 
States 32-gun frigate Essex, Captain Smithy 
visited England shortly before the war of 18 12, 
a deserter from an English war ship sought 
refuge in her. A British officer came on board 
and made formal demand for him. On being 
sent below to get his clothes, the deserter ap- 
proached a carpenter's bench and with one blow, 



Boys to Flog Boys. 51 

cut off his left hand with an ax. Pickinp^ up the 
severed member with his right hand, he returned 
to the quarter deck and flung it at the feet of his 
captors saying, that before he would again serve 
in a British man-of-war he woukl cut oflF his left 
foot. Horrified at the sight, the lieutenant left 
the Essex without his prisoner. 

It was a peculiar feature of the punishment of 
flogging that officers who, at first, sickened and 
fainted at the sight, gradually grew indiflferent 
and, in some instances, acquired a fiendish crav- 
ing for it. Not even the tender flesh of the ship's 
boys was safe from this brutal ordeal ; only, in 
their case, hoys were called upon to handle the 
lash instead of men. 

Such being the severity of discipline maintained 
in the royal navy at this time, it is no wonder 
that we find that so many attempted to run 
away. With the more desirable men, however, 
the British commanders were lenient. While the 
Macedonian was under the orders of Lord Fitz- 
roy, a fine sailor named Richard Suttonwood es- 
caped to an English merchant brig. When too 
late, Dick found that this brig was laden with 
powder for the Macedonian and, on the following 
day, she ran alongside. Realizing that he was 
caught, Dick made the best of a bad case by 



52 Life Aboard a Frigate. 

boldly going aboard the frigate and surrendering 
himself — and Lord Fitzroy pardoned him. 

** The crew," records Samuel, " were all de- 
lighted at his return on account of his lively dis- 
position and ability, to sing comic songs. So 
joyous were we all at his escape from punishment 
that we insisted on his giving a concert. Seated 
on a gun, surrounded by scores of sailors, Dick 
sang a number of favorite songs " to which even 
some of the officers listened — although, of course, 
they did not show it. 

Lord Fitzroy appreciated the hard life of the 
men under him and did every thing to make it 
pleasanter. While at Lisbon a peculiar character 
was induced to come aboard the Macedonian who 
did much to " 'liven up things." " We had just 
finished breakfast," said Samuel, " when a num- 
ber our men were seen running, in high glee, 
toward the main hatchway. Wondering what 
was going on, I watched their proceedings with 
curious eye. The cause of their joy soon appeared 
in the person of a short, round-faced, merry-look- 
ing tar who descended the hatchway amid cries 
of: 

" ' Hurrah ! Here's Happy Jack ! ' 

" As soon as the jovial little man had set his 
foot on the berth deck he began to sing. It was 
a song of triumph, of England's naval glories. 



tt 



Happy Jack." 53 



Every voice was luislicd, all work was 1)roii,L;]it 
to a standstill while the crew g^athered round in 
groups to listen to his unequalled performance. 
Happy Jack succeeded in imparting his joyous 
feelings to our people and they parted with him 
that night with deep regret.^' 



CHAPTER V. 

LIVELY INCIDENTS ABOARD. 

Onl}^ a few days after the Christmas carousal 
(as described in Chapter III), word reached the 
British admiral at Lisbon that nine French frig- 
ates were cruising along the western Spanish 
coast. In a moment all was excitement and con- 
fusion as the English war craft, then in that 
port, hastened to put to sea in search of the 
enemy. The 74-gun ships-of-the-line Hannibal, 
Norihumberland and Caesar, with the Macedon- 
ian and a few smaller war ships, at once dropped 
down the river in pursuit; every man animated 
with the keenest desire to fight. But after cruis- 
insf several days in a futile effort to discover the 
French fleet, the Admiral signaled ''Return to 
port." 

On the passage back, the English fell in with a 
Scotch ship from Greenock which had been 
reduced, by a succession of gales, to a most 
perilous condition. Her masts and rudder were 
gone while numerous leaks were gaining on the 
pumps. Finding that it was impossible to save 
the craft, her people were taken off and she was 
left to sink. 



The Captain Casiiierkd. 55 

Before qaininj^ port from tliis short cruise, an 
incident happened that seriously affected Sam- 
uel's future career ; indeed, also that of Lord 
Fitzroy himself. One night while the topsails 
were beings reefed the sailing-master, Mr. Lewis, 
in a fit of ill-humor, threatened to flog- one of the 
seamen — which, by the regulations, he had no 
right to do. Lord Fitzroy was a strict disciplin- 
arian — not only with the crew but with his 
officers — and he would have been the last to have 
had even the humblest of his ship's company sub- 
jected to injustice ; not even at the hands of his 
sailing-master. The latter held a position of 
responsibility and authority in the ship equal, 
almost, to that of the commander himself. 

Overhearing Mr. Lewis' threat. Lord Fitzroy 
took him severely to task and the sailing-master 
so far forgot himself as to enter into a dispute 
with his superior. The affair reached such a 
stage that, on their return to Lisbon, the Admiral 
ordered a court-martial. Unfortunately the sail- 
ing-master had considerable influence with naval 
authorities and, although Lord Fitzroy w^as per- 
fectly justified in taking the course he did, the 
court-martial compromised the matter with the 
result that both officers were cashiered. 

This was a bitter disappointment for Lord Fitz- 
roy for he had just entered upon his cherished 



56 Lively Incidents Aboard. 

profession. He was relieved of his command and 
was succeeded, in rapid succession, by Captains 
Carson, Waldgrave and John Surman Carden. 
The fact that it was so hard to find a commander 
of abihty equal to Lord Fitzroy, showed, plainly 
enough, how well his professional qualities had 
commended themselves to the Admiralty. 

Among the popular members of the Mace- 
donian's ship's company was a negro named 
Nugent. He had a fine presence, polite manners 
and easy address which had won for him " pro- 
motion " to a wardroom servant. As he was an 
American, however, and had been unjustly im- 
pressed in the British service, he had long kept a 
" weather eye " open for an opportunity to escape. 

Soon after the return of the squadron to Lis- 
bon, as just narrated, Nugent found his chance 
and managed to get aboard an American ship that 
was shortly to sail for the other side of the At- 
lantic. So far, his effort to escape had been 
entirely successful for the British officers had not 
been able to trace him. 

But one unlucky day, while Nugent was stand- 
ing in full view on the deck of his ship, an officer 
on the Macedonian's quarter deck, who had the 
very professional habit of leveling his spyglass at 
any and every thing in sight, happened to bring 
Nugent within the field of his vision ; and, recog- 




A BOAT ITTTIXc; Oil- 1-RuM AX EX(JLISH WAUSIIII' 
From the original painting by R. Wcstall. 



Impressing Skamrn. 57 

nizinq- the deserter, sent a boat off which soon 
returned with the ofTender. Punishment for de- 
sertion from the Britisli navy, at that time, was 
exceedingly brutal. Nu^c^cnt was placed in irons 
until the ship again ^rot to sea but, owing to his 
general popularity and favor with the officers, he 
got off without the dreaded flogging. 

In those days British officers were unscru- 
pulous in impressing men into their service, it 
frequently happening that citizens of other na- 
tions were seized in the streets and hurried off to 
British war ships. Of course, these men could 
appeal to their consuls and, in some cases, were 
released. But, in many instances (such as Nu- 
gent's) the pressgang was sent ashore on the eve 
of the ship's sailing so that, before word could 
reach the consul, the ship was far out to sea — 
beyond the hope of recall. 

It was W'hile at Lisbon that Samuel himself 
came near being an involuntary deserter and, 
consequently, incurring the dreadful penalty for 
that offense. 

One day some of the Macedonian s officers 
took him ashore to assist them in making pur- 
chases for the ship's stores. Proceeding to a 
distant part of the city, where the lad never 
before had gone, they gave him a small com- 
mission to execute. When he endeavored to re- 



58 Lively Incidents Aboard. 

turn he got lost in the labyrinth of crooked, nar- 
row streets and, not understanding a word of 
the native language, he failed to get back until 
the last ship's boat had left. 

Here was a predicament, indeed, for our youth- 
ful hero! He rightly conjectured that his ab- 
sence would be construed as wilful desertion and 
that a police alarm would at once be sent out for 
his apprehension. If so taken, no excuse of his 
would be listened to for the local officials would 
insist on receiving the large reward offered by 
the Admiralty for the apprehension of deserters 
from the royal navy ; and the Macedonian's offi- 
cers could not pay that reward without recording 
the punishment in the ship's books. 

Almost distracted by the prospect, Samuel set 
out to find the Fish Market, for he knew that 
the landing place was near that spot. It was the 
only bit of Portuguese geography he had the 
least familiarity with. Addressing, in English, 
one person and another, he was answered by 
empty stares and occasionally (from some citizen 
more intelligent than his fellows) with an " No 
entender Englis." 

Finally, espying a British soldier, he joyfully 
ran up to him and exclaimed : 

" Good luck to you ! Do tell me where Fish 
Market is, for these stupid Portuguese, bad 



Narrow Escapes. 59 

luck to them, can't iitiderstand a word I say ; for 
it is all * No entcndcr Englis.' " 

The soldier lan.qhcd at this cxhihititMi of Brit- 
ish temper and very kindly showed the desired 
way. 

It was now very late at night and few people 
were about. Finally, Samuel saw a native boat- 
man but he could not understand what ship the 
lad wanted to board. It happened that the Mace- 
donian, at this time, had her mainmast out so 
that by pointing- and holding up two fingers he 
manasfcd to make the boatman understand. 

On another occasion Samuel was an unwilling 
deserter while his ship was in the Bight o' Lis- 
bon. Happening on shore with two other boys, 
thev overstaved their time and had to remain in 
the city all night. Not being provided with 
money they were compelled to wander about the 
streets until morning. 

All that night they were in constant fear of 
being apprehended by the local officials as de- 
serters. To guard against this, they practiced a 
deception. Samuel was selected to represent a 
midshipman for, if there was an officer present, 
they could not be arrested for desertion. By 
means of a piece of chalk, a stripe was marked 
around his collar which, in the uncertain light 
of street lamps, made a fairly good imitation of 
the silver lace around a midshipman's collar. 

5 



6o Lively Incidents Aboard. 

Getting safely on board the following morning, 
the boys were separated for examination ; to see if 
they would tell the same story of their absence. 
That they were in for punishment, they could not 
doubt for, in Leech's case, at least, this all-night 
absence had happened twice in a very short 
period. Fortunately for the boys, one of them 
happened to be the servant of First Lieutenant 
David Hope and a favorite. If the Heutenant's 
boy was flogged, all must be similarly punished 
so, in order to save the back of his own boy, all 
were let off with an admonition. 

About this time the Macedonian was ordered 
on another cruise and, being short of men, a 
pressgang (made up of the most loyal men 
aboard, armed to the teeth) was sent ashore to 
seize any desirable man they might meet. They 
returned with the required number. Some of 
them were Americans but their protection papers 
were taken from them and destroyed so that 
proof of the outrage was lost. 

Every thing being in readiness, the Mace- 
donian put to sea for a cruise in the Bay of 
Biscay. Scarcely had she been out two days 
when she encountered a gale in which she nearly 
foundered. In his diary Samuel says : " We had 
just finished dinner when a tremendous sea broke 
over us, pouring down the hatchway, sweeping 



" Man the Pumps." 6i 

the galley of all its lialf-cookcd contents, then 
being- prepared for the officers' dinner, and cov- 
ering the berth deck with a perfect Hood. It 
seemed as if Old Neptune really intended that 
wave to sink ns in Davy Jones' locker. 

" As the water rolled from side to side within 
and the rude waves from without beat against 
her, our good ship trembled from stem to stern 
and seemed like a human being gasping for 
breath in a struggle with death. The women 
(there were several on board) set up a shriek, a 
thing I had never heard them do before. Some 
of the men turned pale, others cursed and tried to 
say witty things. The officers started, orders ran 
along the ship to " Man the chain pumps " and 
to cut holes through the berth deck so as to let 
the water into the hold. These orders being rap- 
idly obeyed, the ship was freed from her danger. 
The confusion of the moment before was fol- 
lowed by laughing and pleasantries. That gale 
was long spoken of as one of great danger." 

Soon after this narrow escape, the Macedonian 
gave chase to two West Indiamen. During the 
night it blew so hard that it became necessary to 
take in the topsails and it was while in the per- 
formance of this duty that one of the impressed 
sailors (an American named John Thomson) fell 
from the yard, struck some part of the ship and 
disappeared in the sea — never to rise again. 



62 Lively Incidents Aboard. 

Leech records that : " He was greatly beloved 
by his messmates, by whom his death was as 
severely felt as when a member of a family dies 
on shore. His loss created a dull and gloomy 
atmosphere throughout the ship and it was sev- 
eral days before the hands regained their wonted 
elasticity of mind and appearance." 

While on this cruise, one of Samuel's duties 
was the cleaning of knives, forks, dish-covers 
etc., for the wardroom. This work devolved on 
the wardroom boys in succession. One day, hav- 
ing finished his allotted task, the wardroom stew- 
ard, a quick tempered man from the East Indies, 
came to Samuel at dinner time to inquire for the 
knives. Not recollecting, at the moment, where 
he had put them, the lad made no reply ; where- 
upon the steward pushed Samuel over a sack of 
bread and, in falling, his head struck the corner 
of a locker. 

As he felt much pain and the blood was flowing 
freely, Samuel went to Mr. Marsh, the surgeon, 
who dressed the wound and advised the lad to 
take care of it. 

Without doubt, the cut would have healed 
speedily had it not been for the freak of a sailor, 
a few davs afterward. It was one of the 
" sports " of the seamen, while holystoning and 
washing down the decks of the frigate, to 



Sick Unto Death. 6^ 

" souse " the ship's boys. Owing- to the injury 
on his head and renicmbcrini;- the admonition 
g:ivcn by the surireon, Samuel had carefully 
avoided this '* medicine." This, of course, was 
the surest way of courting its application, for 
sailor-folk are quick to note any shirking of what 
they believe to be each one's due. 

Observing that Samuel was trying to avoid his 
" dose," an old tar stole up behind him one 
morning and poured a bucketful of cold water on 
his head. That night Samuel felt violent pains 
in his neck, ears and head and, being no better on 
the following morning, he was examined by the 
surgeon and excused from duty. Continuing to 
grow worse, he was sent to the Sick Bay where 
he remained several weeks. Although carefully 
attended by the surgeon and most kindly treated 
by his shipmates (who, rough as they were, 
were honestly sorry for him) he continued failing 
until his life was despaired of. 

With him, in .the Sick Bay, was a tough old 
negro named Black Tom whose strong frame had 
long since been weakened by dissipation. Black 
Tom soon died and it was with peculiarly painful 
feelings that Samuel watched them sew his body 
up in his hammock and heard them read a short 
burial service on the deck above. It was not 
necessary for any one to tell the lad what " that 



64 Lively Incidents Aboard. 

splash " in .the water was. He heard the ominous 
sound as Black Tom's body plunged into the deep, 
and felt sure that the scene would soon be re- 
enacted over his own remains. 

Indeed, he could tell by the lowered voices 
about him that all hope of his recovery had gone. 
But, thanks to a strong constitution and discreet 
living, Samuel gradually recovered and, by the 
time the frigate returned to Lisbon from this 
cruise, he was pronounced fit for duty again. 



CHAPTER VI. 
CAPTAIN GARDEN'S DISCIPLINE. 

On return to Lisbon after the cruise in which 
Samuel Leech so nearly lost his life, as described 
in the last chapter, our hero found that his master 
had secured the services of another boy and Leech 
was temporarily assigned to the duty of mes- 
senger for the officers. It was now that Captain 
John Surman Carden became commander of the 
frigate. The men fondly believed that he would 
prove less severe in discipline, for his appear- 
ance gave promise of it. In order to propitnate 
him they called him a " kind, fatherly old gentle- 
man." But their hopes and arts proved of no 
avail for he soon demonstrated that he was 
severer than any of his predecessors. The slight- 
est offense was severely punished and the men 
were soon wishing that they had the really kind- 
hearted Lord Fitzroy with them again. 

Just before sailing from Lisbon on another 
cruise, the sailing-master's boy ran away. He 
was caught, flogged and dismissed the service 
and our hero took his place so that he once more 



66 Captain Garden's Discipline. 

was housed under the partially protecting wing 
of a " master." 

Captain Carden, in spite of the severity of his 
manner, was a man of refined tastes and one of 
his first official acts was to enlist a band of musi- 
cians composed of Germans, Italians and French- 
men. They had been in a French vessel which 
had been captured by the Portuguese. As soon 
as Carden learned of this he at once engaged 
them for the Macedonian with the stipulation that 
in case of battle they were not to be called on to 
fight but were to be stowed away in the cable tier 
until " the clouds blew over." Also, they insisted 
that they were not to be flogged. 

It was fortunate for these men that they made 
the stipulations they did for, soon afterward, the 
Macedonian was engaged in battle with the 
American frigate United States and had they 
been exposed on deck some of them, undoubtedly, 
would have been put, permanently, out of tune. 

The career of this band was singular. Cap- 
tured from the French by the Portuguese, they 
enlisted in the British navy. Captured from the 
English by the United States they entered the 
American service and became the second band of 
musicians in our navy — the first having been kid- 
napped by Captain McNiell at Messina several 
years before and carried across the Atlantic, in 



Early Sea-Musicians. (iy 

spite of their tearful protests that they had not 
provided for the maintenance of their faniihes 
during their enforced absence. This first band 
was being returned to Italy in the Chesapeake 
when that shio was captured by the British frig- 
ate Leopard in 1807, and again they were drawn 
into sharps and flats — from all of which we can 
readily believe that the lot of the early sea- 
musician was not a happy one. 

During the cruise on which the Macedonian 
had now entered, these musicians played when- 
ever Captain Garden dined and when the ward- 
room officers messed they played before the door 
of that sanctum ; except on Sundays when Garden 
was in the habit of honoring the wardroom with 
his presence, the band accompanying him. On 
the whole, the crew was much pleased to have the 
" artists " with them for they enlivened the mon- 
otony of the cruise and formed a shining target 
for the amateur musicians among the sailors to 
hurl their scornful criticisms at. 

A few days after leaving port an incident oc- 
curred which will be described in Samuel's own 
words. *' The thrilling cry * A man overboard ! ' 
ran through the ship with electrical efifect. It 
was followed by : 

Heave out a rope ! ' then by still another : 
Gut away the life buoy ! ' Then came the 
order : 






68 Captain Garden's Discipline. 

" ' Lower a boat ! ' 

" Notwithstanding the rapidity of these com- 
mands and the confusion occasioned by the antic- 
ipated loss of a man, they were rapidly obeyed. 
The ship was hove-to. By that time, however, 
the cause of all this excitement was at a consid- 
erable distance from the ship. He was a poor 
Swede named Logholm who, while engaged in 
lashing the larboard [port] anchor stock, lost 
his hold and fell into the sea. 

" He could not swim but somehow managed 
to keep afloat until the boat reached him, when 
he began to sink. The man at the bow ran his 
boat-hook down and caught the drowning man 
by his clothes. The cloth giving way, the man 
lost his hold and the Swede once more sank. 
Again the active bowman ran the hook down, 
leaning far over the side. Fortunately he got 
hold of the dying man's shirt collar. Dripping 
and apparently lifeless, he was drawn into the 
boat. He was soon under the surgeon's care, 
whose skill restored him to life." Poor Logholm ! 
He had escaped death from drowning to await a 
more dreadful fate in battle, as we shall soon see. 

Awaking one morning, soon after this, Samuel 
discovered that he had had the narrowest escape 
of his life from getting the lash. He learned 
that, during the night, a strange vessel had ap- 



Midnight Call to Arms. 69 

proachcd and believing- her to ])c an armed enemy, 
the entire ship's company had been called to quar- 
ters. The drums beat, the bugle sounded to arms, 
the great guns were got in readiness for action, 
the battle lanterns lighted while the officers and 
men mustered at each division. When all was in 
readiness, it was discovered that the stranger was 
a harmless merchantman ; upon which the ofif- 
watch returned to their hanmiocks. Samuel had 
slept soundly all ■ through the bustle and con- 
fusion and, luckily for him, his absence from the 
assembly for action was not noticed. 

Arriving at Madeira, the Portuguese boy who 
had taken Samuel's place as servant to the sur- 
geon, was dismissed as being unfit for Anglo- 
Saxon company and it is a high compliment to 
Samuel's character that the surgeon made strong 
(though futile) efforts to have our hero again 
for his needs. 

From Madeira the Macedonian proceeded to 
St. Michael's when one of the women on board 
(wife of one of the crew) gave birth to a fine, 
plump boy. This happy incident was quickly 
followed by another birth which tended greatly 
to relieve the monotony of the cruise. Appar- 
ently, Captain Carden did not relish the idea of 
having his gallant frigate turned into a nursery 
and, on the return of that ship to Lisbon in a few 



70 Captain Garden's Discipline. 

days, he ordered all the v\^omen aboard to enter 
a vessel about to sail for England. 

It was while the Macedonian was in Lisbon on 
this trip that our old friend, Bob Hammond, got 
into trouble again. While below deck, one day, 
he was vexed by the taunts of a shipmate and, 
raising his huge fist, aimed a blow which, instead 
of striking the offender landed on another sea- 
man. Bob was too angry to apologize and only 
remarked : 

" I have killed two birds with one stone." 

Fighting among the crew is a serious offense 
aboard a war ship and the next morning Bob 
was ordered before Captain Carden and asked 
if he had struck the man. Unhesitatingly Bob 
replied that he had and was glad of it. Two 
dozen lashes were immediately laid on him and, 
being taken down from the grating the Captain 
questioned him again. But Bob only replied that : 

" The man who reported me is a scoundrel " — 
Bob used a stronger word. ' 

For this, the Irishman got another dozen lashes. 
All the strokes were received without eliciting 
the slightest groan or twitch from the victim and, 
thoroughly discouraged, Captain Carden sent him 
below. 

One of the finest sailors in the Macedonian — 
a man popular not only with the crew but with the 



A Desperatr Deskrtef^. 71 

officers — named Jack Sadler, crrowinc;' weary of 
the service, determined to desert. One nii^lit he 
lowered himself over the side into the river and 
began swimming toward the shore. As it was 
not very dark, he was discovered and the sentry 
fired at him but without efiFect. Then a boat was 
lowered and went in chase. Jack was soon over- 
taken, when the officer in charge said : 

" Well, Mr. Sadler, you thought you had got 
away, did you ? " to which Jack replied : 

" You are not so sure that you have me now." 

And with that he sprang into the river and 
would have escaped had not a boat from another 
war ship headed him ofif ; for he was an expert 
swimmer and could remain under water a long 
time. On account of his popularity he was let 
off with three dozen lashes — a remarkably light 
punishment for desertion. 

One of Sadler's " besetting sins " was that of 
drunkenness and a few days after this attempted 
escape he applied himself lustily to the bottle — 
with the usual result — and was placed in irons. 
Jack was Bob Hammond's messmate and the lat- 
ter, observing his " chum's " condition, instantly 
became so sympathetic that he got drunk too — 
so that he could '* be with him." 

While in this condition. Bob purposely placed 
himself in the wav of the officers and in a short 



'J2 Captain Garden's Discipline. 

time had the satisfaction of sharing Jack's irons 
where the sympathetic souls were soon pouring 
their commiserations into each others ears. The 
united effect of their distressed feeHngs was re- 
markable for in a short time they began singing 
and throughout that live-long night they kept up 
such a yelling and hallooing that not one of the 
great ship's company could sleep — especially the 
officers whose rooms were near the "brig"; 
and the}^ were too dignified to order a change. 

When the culprits were hauled up for punish- 
ment the following morning, Captain Carden 
turned to Jack and said : 

'* Well, Mr. Sadler, you were drunk, were you 
last night ? " 

" I was, sir," replied the oflfender. Jack's of- 
fense merited severe handling but he was a fav- 
orite of the commander and Captain Carden 
wished to be lenient. So he said : 
Do you feel sorry for it, sir?" 
I do, sir." 

Will you try to keep sober if I forgive you ? " 
continued Captain Carden. 

I will try, sir," was the reply. 
Then, sir, I forgive you." 

Then turning with great severity to Bob Ham- 
mond, the British commander said : 

" Well, Mr. Hammond, you got drunk, did you, 









sir?" 



P)Oh's TTorn o' Malt. 73 

Bob shrnc^q^cd his shoulders and shiflinp;- the 
enormous quid of tobacco to a convenient position 
in his mouth, rephcd : 

" I can't say but what I had a horn of malt, 
Sir. 

In a voice of thunder Garden asked : " A 
horn of malt? You rascal! What do you call 
a horn of malt ? " 

Bob shifted the w^eight of his body to the other 
leg and, giving a nautical hitch to his trousers, 
drolly said : 

" When I was in Bengal, Madras and Batavia 
I used to get some stuflF called arrack — we used 
to call it a horn of malt ; but what I had yesterday 
was some good rum." 

While delivering this explanation Bob's manner 
was so exquisitely ludicrous that both the officers 
and men burst out laughing. Captain Garden 
was confused but recovering himself said to First 
Lieutenant Hope : 

" Put that rascal in irons ! It's of no use to 
flog him." 

One of Gaptain Garden's hobbies was to pick 
out only the finest seamen for his ship and to 
make room for them he managed to weed out 
the drones by giving them every opportunity to 
desert. Once in a while he would call on the 
men he wished to lose, to go ashore and " cut 



74 Captain Garden's Discipline. 

stuff to make brooms of," as he significantly 
expressed it. These men soon came to be known 
as the " Broomers " and it was generally under- 
stood that, if they did not return to the ship, no 
special effort would be made to capture them. 

Now, while Bob was an excellent seaman when 
sober. Captain Carden was fearful of the effect 
his influence would have on other members of the 
ship's company and one day, when the " Broom- 
ers " were called, Carden said to Hammond in a 
very knowing manner : 

" Mr. Hammond, you may go with these fel- 
lows to cut broom stuff." Bob took the hint, 
replying : 

*' Ay, ay, sir, and I will cut a long handle to 
it." 

True to his word, he " cut a long handle to it " 
for he never appeared on the Macedonians deck 
again. 



CHAPTER VII. 
FORESHADOWING A GREAT BATTLE. 

About this time, 1811, the prevailing topic of 
conversation among British sailors was the prob- 
ability of war with the United States and it will 
prove interesting to observe the confidence gen- 
erally expressed of the easy victories England 
would have, at least, on the sea. 

Down to this time Samuel had been a loyal 
Briton and he well expressed the sentiment of his 
shipmates when he said : " The prevailing feel- 
ing through the fleet was that of confidence in 
our own success and of contempt for the inferior 
naval force of our anticipated enemy. Every 
man, and especially the officers, predicted, as his 
eye glanced proudly on the fine fleet which was 
anchored off Lisbon, a speedy and successful 
issue of the approaching conflict." 

Shortly after this the Macedonian received 
orders to carry dispatches to Norfolk, Virginia, 
and she put to sea accordingly. It was then in 
the " dead of winter " and young Leech, as the 
frigate neared her haven, began to feel the sharp 
cold of the American climate. It was the first 
6 



76 Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

time he had experienced really cold weather and 
he listened with unusual interest to the " cold 
weather" yarns the sailors began to spin. One 
story particularly impressed itself on his mind. 

It was that about a tyrannical lieutenant who 
delighted in imposing extra tasks on the crew. 
Although it was never his watch on deck at the 
hour holystoning was done, he managed to ap- 
pear before the task was completed and made the 
men do it over again. This, in a severe climate, 
was a great hardship so that many a curse or 
prayer was offered that he might be taken else- 
where. 

One morning, the weather being unusually 
cold, the men sprang to their work hoping to 
finish holystoning the decks before their tor- 
menter came up. They had just completed the 
task when the lieutenant appeared and angrily 
ordered them to do it all over again. With mut- 
tered imprecations they got down to the wet 
decks on their knees, earnestly hoping that 
he might never again appear on deck alive. 
Strangely enough their wish was granted for the 
officer was taken sick and died the next day. 

Dropping anchor in Hampton Roads, the frig- 
ate was made snug for a short stay in American 
waters. Samuel Leech records : " The sound of 
our own familiar tongue from strangers was very 



" Fine Eating in America." 'jy 

agreeable after bciiii;* so lonp; accustomed to Por- 
tuguese lingo and a thrill of home remembrances 
shot through our hearts as the American pilot, 
on stepping on board said : ' It's very cold.* " 

"While in Hampton Roads we fared well. Boats 
were alongside every day with plenty of beef and 
pork, which was declared by universal consent to 
be infinitely superior to that we had obtained in 
Portugal. Our men said that Yankee pork would 
swell in the pot, which they very sagely accounted 
for on the supposition that the pigs were killed 
in the full of the moon." 

The principal drawback to the enjoyment of the 
stay at Norfolk was the denial of liberty to go 
ashore. The strictest care was taken to prevent 
communication with the land, either personally 
or by letter lest the men would desert or might 
learn of the impending war. Many of the crew 
were Americans wrongfully impressed. 

Speaking of the interchange of visits between 
the officers and Americans, Samuel touches on one 
of the historical episodes in the American navy. 
He said : " Our officers never enjoyed them- 
selves better than during our stay at this port. 
Besides feasting among themselves on the fine, 
fat beef, geese and turkeys which came alongside 
in abundance, they exchanged visits with Com- 
modore Decatur and his officers of the frigate 



78 Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

United States, then lying at Norfolk. I remember 
hearing Commodore Decatur and the captain of 
the Macedonian joking about taking each other's 
ships in case of war." 

From Captain Mackenzie's Life of Decatur we 
get the details of this conversation which, as will 
soon be seen, was prophetic — though, according 
to another account it took place in Lisbon instead 
of at Norfolk. " Garden particularly pointed out 
the inefficiency of the 24-pounders on the main 
deck of the United States and said that they 
could not be handled with ease and rapidity in 
action and that long i8-pounders would do as 
much execution and were as heavy as experience 
had proved that a frigate ought to carry. ' Be- 
sides, Decatur,' said Garden, ' though your ships 
may be good enough, and you are a clever set of 
fellows, what practice have you had in war? 
There's the rub.' " 

After a quick run across the Atlantic, the 
Macedonian arrived at her old quarters in Lisbon 
where, much to the joy of all on board, orders 
were found awaiting her to convoy a fleet of 
merchantmen home. It was now over two years 
since Samuel had seen Merry England and he 
describes the departure from Lisbon in the fol- 
lowing graphic style : " One morning a gun was 
fired to give notice to our convoy to get under 







^ - 



^■^? 



•/: ■:2 



y. 



Off for Merry England. 79 

weigh. Immediately the harhor was ahvc with 
noise and activity. The son^^ of the sailors weigh- 
ing anchor, the creaking of pullies, the flapping 
of sails, the loud, gruff voices of the officers and 
the splashing of the waters created what to us, 
now that we were homeward bound, was a sweet 
harmony of sounds. 

" Amid all this animation, our own stately 
frigate spread her bellying sails to a light but 
favoring breeze. With colors flying, our band 
playing lively airs and the captain with his speak- 
ing trumpet urging the lagging merchant ships to 
more activity, we passed gaily through the fleet 
consigned to our care. In this gallant style we 
scudded past the straggling ruins of old Lisbon, 
which still bore marks of the earthquake that 
destroyed it. Very soon the merry fishermen, 
who abound in the Tagus, were far at our stern. 
Next we glided past the tall granite pinnacles of 
towering Mount Cintra. The highlands passed 
from our vision like scenes in a panorama and in 
a few hours, instead of the companionship of the 
large flock of seagulls, which hover over this 
river, we were attended, here and there, by only 
one of these restless wanderers of the deep. 
Now we were fairly at sea and were enjoying the 
rare luxury of fond anticipations. Visions of 
many an old fireside, of many an humble hearth- 



8o Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

stone, poor, but precious, flitted through the 
minds of many of our crew that night. Hard- 
ships and severe discipHne were for the time for- 
gotten. in dreams of hope." 

After a pleasant passage of a few days the 
beautiful shores of Old England greeted the 
longing eyes of the Macedonian's crew and in a 
short time the noble frigate was snugly anchored 
in the harbor of Plymouth. But now Samuel ex- 
perienced another (and perhaps the most trying 
hardship) of the sailor's life. Lest the men might 
desert, they were not permitted to go ashore al- 
though the ship was under orders to undergo 
thorough repairs which necessitated a long stay 
in that port. 

To our hero this was a bitter disappointment, 
for he had fondly counted on paying a short visit 
to Bladen and again seeing his mother. As a 
special favor he was permitted to go ashore with 
another boy and this delicious taste of terra iirma 
is described by the lad in the following words: 
" One fine Sabbath morning I went ashore with a 
messmate who lived in Plymouth and in company 
with some children we wandered into the fields 
where the merry notes of the numerous birds, the 
rich perfume of the blooming trees, the tall green 
hedges and the modest primroses, cowslips and 
violets, which adorned the banks by the roadside, 
filled me with inexpressible delight." 



" Actually Sober." 8i 

True to the pious teachings of his mother, 
Samuel did not abuse the privilege of going 
ashore, as some of the other boys in the Mace- 
donian did. He kept away from the alehouses 
and at sunset returned aboard and reported him- 
self to the officer of the deck. The latter seemed 
surprised to find the youngster sober and dis- 
missed him with a kind word. 

About the same time some of the other lads 
returned from liberty in a condition that showed, 
too plainly, that they had been over indulging in 
liquor. They loudly berated Samuel for being 
so " white-livered and unscamanlike " as not to 
get drunk, declaring that he was fit only for the 
company of babies and womenfolk. On the fol- 
lowing morning, however, these same boys were 
summoned to the grating and were soundly 
flogged for their conduct ; so that, after all, Sam- 
uel had the laugh on them. 

While at Plvmouth the Macedonian was taken 
into one of the magnificent drydocks of that port 
and was thoroughly overhauled. New rigging 
was rove, alterations made and, being repainted 
inside and out, she looked like a new ship. 

Finally, everything being in readiness, the frig- 
ate made a quick run over to the French port 
of Rochelle from which place she proceeded to 
Brest where a formidable English fleet was found 



82 Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

blockading .the port. A superior French fleet was 
in this harbor and it was the plan of the British 
commander-in-chief to lure it out to a general 
engagement. 

Our hero records : " With all our maneuver- 
ing, we could not entice them from their snug 
berth in the harbor, where they were safely 
moored, defended by a heavy fort and by a chain 

crossing the harbor Sometimes we sent a 

frigate or two as near their fort as we dared. 
At other times the whole fleet would get under 
weigh and stand out to sea — but without success. 
Once in a while their frigates would creep outside 
the forts, when we gave them chase but seldom 
went beyond the exchange of a few harmless 
shots." 

Returning to Plymouth and then again making 
for the coast of France, the Macedonian had 
nearly accomplished the distance of the return 
passage when, one day, the man at the masthead 
cried out : 
Sail, ho!" 

Where away?" inquired the officer of the 
deck. Being informed, the officer asked : 
"What does she look like? " 
" She looks small ; I cannot tell, sir." 
Waiting a few minutes, until the stranger was 
nearer, the officer again hailed : 






Capturing Fugitives. 83 






Masthead, there ! What does she look like? " 
She looks like a small sail boat, sir." 

So small, indeed, was this sail boat that it was 
not until the frigate had almost run her down 
that she could be seen from the deck, when it was 
found that it contained a man and a boy. That 
sucli a frail craft should be alone in these danger- 
ous waters was, in itself, enough to arouse sus- 
picion and running alongside the English took 
them aboard. They proved to be two French 
prisoners who had escaped from a British prison 
and, having stolen a skiff, had ventured on this 
voyage for liberty. 

" Poor fellows," said Samuel. " They looked 
sadly disappointed in finding themselves again in 
British hands when in sight of their own sunny 

France I am sure we all would have been 

glad to have missed them." 

Returning to the blockading fleet off Brest, the 
Macedonian entered upon a service that was more 
'* active " than that she had previously engaged 
in. Finding that the French would not come out, 
boat expeditions were organized and went out at 
night to pick up whatever might come in the way. 

One night a more formidable expedition than 
usual was under way and Samuel records that 
*' the oars were muffled, the boats' crews increased 
and every man was armed to the teeth. The cots 



84 Foreshadowing a Great Battle. 

were got in readiness in case any of the party 

came back wounded Notwithstanding these 

omnious preparations, the brave fellows went off 
in fine spirits as if they had been going ashore 
on liberty. We had no tidings of this adventure 
until morning when I was startled by hearing 
three cheers from the watch on deck which were 
answered by a party that seemed to be approach- 
ing us. i 
" I ran on deck just as our men came along- i 
side with their bloodless prize, a lugger, laden 
with French brandy, wine and castile soap. As 
this was our first prize we christened her Young 
Macedonian. Before sending her to England for 
condemnation, some of our people replenished 
their empty bottles with the brandy. 




A MIDNIGHT BOAT ATTACK. 

From the original paiiitivg by R. Jack. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
A MOMENTOUS NAVAL BATTLE. 

We now come to that part of Samuel Leech's 
diary which forms one of the most important 
documents in our naval history and, in considera- 
tion of its great value, it will be given in the 
hero's own words. 

The expression " most important " has been 
used advisedly. There have been more spec- 
tacular and more dramatic actions between single 
warships in the nineteenth century but none (with 
one exception — that between the Monitor and 
Merrimac) has exerted such influence in revo- 
lutionizing the science of sea fighting and naval 
architecture as that group of single-frigate battles 
in i8i 2, namely : that between the Constitution and 
Guerricre, the United States and Macedonimi and 
the Constitution and Java. 

Unfortunately we have but scanty details of 
the first and last mentioned engagements but in 
the second we have the fullest account in Leech's 
diary ; and it may, unhesitatingly, be accepted as 
being typical of the three. Leech's account is 
doubly valuable inasmuch as it is given from 



86 A Momentous Naval Battle. 

the enemy's view-point ; therefore, unbiased in its 
acknowledgment of the marvelous accuracy of 
American gunnery and the general efficiency 
of the early American-built frigate. 

It is undeniable that the direct result of this 
group of single-frigate actions was the first 
revolutionizing of the fleets of the world in the 
nineteenth century and the change from European 
traditions and methods in naval architecture to 
American ideals — just as the battle between the 
Monitor and Merrimac resulted in the relegation 
of wooden war craft to the Rotten Row, to make 
room for ironclads. 

In order that we may more intelligently follow 
the momentous sea fight in which the Macedonian 
was soon to engage, a few words descriptive of 
the opposing ships will be necessary. 

The United States belonged to that famous 
group of frigates — having for her sisters the 
Constitution and President — built at the close of 
the eighteenth century. These ships embodied 
many new ideas in naval construction which were 
unsparingly criticised by European experts as 
" rash innovations,*' " unprofessional vagaries " 
and " visionary schemes." So deeply rooted was 
English conservatism in this matter that even 
Captain Garden himself, after visiting the frigate 
United States (the ship he was fated to fight) 



Heavy Yankee Guns. 87 

and liavinq- thoroughly inspected her, frankly 
declared his belief that the Macedonian was 
more than her match. 

Aside from many details of minor importance, 
the main difference between the class of large 
American and British frigates at that day was 
that the former carried 24-pounders to the lat- 
ter's i8-pounders on the main deck, and 42- 
poimders to their 32-pounders on the quarterdeck 
and forecastle. 

But it was just this superiority of weight that 
Englishmen declared would work detrimentally. 
They insisted that 24- and 42-pounders could 
not be handled as efficiently in the heat of action 
as 18- and 32-pounders. 

As a matter of fact, the American 44-gun frig- 
ate zvas overweighted (carrying fifty-five guns 
to the English forty-nine) and the experience of 
the first three frigate actions proved it ; with the 
result that before hostilities ceased our number of 
guns had been reduced to fifty-one. It was with 
this reduced armament that the Constitution cap- 
tured with marvelous immunity to herself the 
Cyane and Levant whose combined armaments 
made fifty-five guns with a total shot weight of 
754 pounds to the broadside as opposed to the 
644 pounds in the Yankee. To a limited extent, 
then, we find Captain Garden's remark about the 



88 A Momentous Naval Battle. 

overweight of our frigates well founded and that 
the Constitution, United States and President 
were more formidable with the reduction. 

It was fashionable in European court circles, 
in those days, to refer to anything American in 
terms of derision and contempt and our gallant 
little navy bore the brunt of these unkindnesses. 
At the outbreak of the war of 1812, English 
newspapers spoke of our frigates as *' bundles of 
fir planks, flying a gridiron flag " while the Lon- 
don Statesman, in its issue early in June, 1812, 
solemnly declared ' *' America certainly cannot 
pretend to wage war with us; she has not the 
navy to do it with." 

Before the war was over, however, England, 
in self defense, was compelled to follow our 
models: as will be seen in the following extract 
from the London Times of March 17, 1814: 
" Sir G. Collier was to sail yesterday from Ports- 
mouth for the American station in the Leander, 
54. This ship has been built and fitted out exactly 
upon the plan of the large American frigates." 

Like all of its European contemporaries, The 
Thunderer expressed unlimited confidence in the 
ability of the British navy to " sweep the con- 
temptible flag of the United States from the seas " 
and to " reduce our marine arsenals to a heap of 
ruins within six months " but, when it heard of 



" Our Backs Ykt Bleeding." 89 

the loss of the Macedonian, so quickly follovviiij:^ 
tliat of the Gucrridre, it exclaimed : 

" In the name of God, what was done with this 
immense superiority of force? " 

Summing up the results of the naval war of 
1 81 2 the London Times, in its issue of December 
30, 1814, said: "We have retired from the 
combat with the stripes yet bleeding on our 
backs. Even yet, however, if we could but close 
the war wnth some great naval triumph the repu- 
tation of our maritime greatness might be par- 
tially restored. But to say that it has not hitherto 
suffered in the estimation of all Europe and, what 
is worse, of America herself, is to belie common- 
sense and universal experience. 

" ' Two or three of our ships have struck to a 
force vastly inferior.' No ! Not two or three 
but many on the ocean and whole squadrons on 
the lakes ; and the numbers are to be viewed with 
relation to the comparative magnitude of the 
two navies. Scarcely is there an American ship 
of war which has not to boast a victory over the 
British flag ; scarcely one British ship in thirty or 
forty that has beaten an American. With the 
bravest seamen and the most powerful navy in the 
world, we retire from the contest when the bal- 
ance of defeat is so heavy against us " — and these 
extraordinary admissions were penned before the 



li^ 



90 A Momentous Naval Battle. 

editor had learned of the capture of the Cyane 
and Levant by the Constitution, the disabling of 
the Endymion by the President, the capture of 
the Nautilus by the Peacock, the disastrous action 
on Lake Borgne, the repulse of the British boat 
attack on the General Armstrong in Fayal, or the 
brilliant victory of the Hornet over the Penguin! 

Such being the peculiarly discouraging condi- 
tions under which our little navy entered into the 
naval struggle of i8i2-'i5, it is with special in- 
terest that we follow the graphic details Samuel 
Leech has given us relative to the second great 
frigate action of that war. 

That the officers and crew of the Macedonian 
were thoroughly imbued with that overweening 
pride in England's naval prowess, so prevalent at 
that date, is shown in a quotation from Leech's 
diary which bore on a rumor that war was immi- 
nent between Great Britain and the United States 
in 1811. He said: "Every man, and especially 
the officers [in the Macedonian'], predicted, as 
his eye glanced proudly on the fine fleet which 
was anchored off Lisbon, a speedy and successful 
issue to the approaching conflict. The prevailing 
feehng through the whole fleet was that of con- 
fidence in our own success and contempt for the 
inferior naval force of our anticipated enemies." 

And why should not " every man, and espe- 



English Ovkr-Confidf.mt. 91 

cially the officers " in the Macedonian so " pre- 
dict " when tlicir ship was one of the newest and 
finest products of British naval construction, 
whereas, every one of her possible Yankee rivals 
of the same class were ** old tubs " built in the 
preceding century ? 



CHAPTER IX. 

IN BATTLE'S AWFUL DIN. 
(Leech's own narrative.) 

At Plymouth we heard some vague rumors of 
a declaration of war against the United States. 
More than this, we could not learn since the 
utmost care was taken to prevent our being fully 
informed. The reason of this secrecy was, prob- 
ably, because we had several Americans in our 
crew, most of whom were impressed men. These 
men, had they been certain that war had broken 
out, would have given themselves up as prisoners 
of war and claimed exemption from that unjust 
service which compelled them to fight against 
their country. 

This was a privilege which the magnanimity 
of the officers ought to have offered them. They 
had already perpetrated a grievous wrong upon 
them in impressing them. It was adding cruelty 
to injustice to compel their service against their 
own nation. 

Leaving Plymouth we next anchored, for a 
brief space, at Torbay, a small port in the British 



" Masthkad There! " 93 

Channel. \\'c were ordered thence to convoy a 
Inline East IiuHa merchant vessel, much larger 
than our frip^ate and havin^: five hundred troops 
on board, bound to the East Indies with money 
to pay the troops there. 

We set sail in a tremendous g-ale of wind. 
Both ships stopped two days at Madeira to take 
in wine and a few other articles. After leaving 
this island, we kept her company two days more 
and then, according to orders, having wished her 
success, w^e left her to pursue her voyage while 
we returned to finish our cruise. 

Though without any positive information, we 
now^ felt pretty certain that our Government was 
at war with America. Among other things our 
captain appeared more anxious than usual. He 
was on deck almost all the time. The lookout 
aloft was more rigidly observed and every little 
while the cry : 

" Masthead, there ! " arrested our attention. 

It is customary in men-of-war to keep men at 
the fore and mainmast heads, whose duty it is 
to give notice of every new object that may ap- 
pear. They are stationed at the royal yards, if 
those are up but, if not, on the topgallant yards. 
At night a lookout is kept on the foreyard only. 

Thus we passed several days, the captain run- 
ning up and down, constantly hailing the man 



94 In Battle's Awful Din. 

at the masthead. Early in the morning he began 
his charge : 

" Keep a good lookout " and continued to re- 
peat it until night. Indeed he seemed almost 
crazy with some pressing anxiety. 

The men felt that there was something antici- 
pated of which they were ignorant and had the 
captain heard all their remarks upon his conduct 
he would not have felt highly flattered. Still, 
everything went on as usual. The day was spent 
in the ordinary duties of man-of-war life at sea 
and in the evening in telling stories of things 
most rare and wonderful — for your genuine old 
tar is an adept in spinning yarns. 

To this yam-spinning was added the most hum- 
orous singing, sometimes dashed with a streak of 
the pathetic which, I assure you, was most touch- 
ing ; especially in one very plaintive melody with 
a chorus beginning with : 

Now if our ship should be cast away, 

It would be our lot to see Old England no more. 

This song made rather a melancholy impression 
on my mind and gave rise to a sort of presenti- 
ment that the Macedonian would never return 
home again. The presence of a shark following 
our frigate for several days, with its attendant 
pilot fish, tended to strengthen this prevalent 



Sail Ho!" 



95 



idea. [That shark was destined to be kept ex- 
ceedingly busy for the next few days.— E. S. M.] 

The Sabbath [October 25, 181 2] came and 
brought with it a still breeze. We usually made 
a sort of a holiday of this sacred day. After 
breakfast it was common to muster the entire 
crew on the spar deck, dressed as the fancy of the 
captain might dictate: sometimes in blue jackets 
and white trousers or blue jackets and blue 
trousers; at other times in blue jackets, scarlet 
vests and blue or white trousers with our bright 
anchor buttons glancing in the sun and our black 
glossy hats ornamented with black ribbons and 
with the name of our ship painted on them. 

After muster we frequently had church service, 
read by the captain. The rest of the day was 
devoted to idleness. But we were destined to 
spend this Sabbath in a very different manner. 

We had scarcely finished breakfast before the 
man at the masthead shouted: 

" Sail ho ! " The captain rushed upon deck, 
exclaiming : 

'' Masthead, there ! " 

" Ay, ay, sir." 

" Where away is the sail ? " The precise an- 
swer to this question I do not recollect but the 
captain proceeded to ask: 

**What does she look like?" 



96 



In Battle's Awful Din. 



" A square rigged vessel, sir," was the reply of 
the lookout. A few minutes afterward, the cap- 
tain shouted again: 
" Masthead, there ! " 
" Ay, ay, sir." 

" What does she look like ? " 
" A large ship, sir, standing toward us." 
By this time most of the crew were on deck, 
eagerly straining their eyes to obtain a glimpse 
of the approaching ship and murmering their 
opinions to each other on her probable character. 
Then came the voice of the captain shouting: 

" Keep silence, fore and aft ! " Silence being 
secured, he hailed the lookout: 

"What does she look like?" to which the 
lookout replied: 

" A large frigate, bearing down upon us, sir." 
A whisper ran along the crew that the stranger 
was a Yankee frigate. The thought was con- 
firmed by the command : 

" All hands clear ship for action, ahoy ! " 
The drum and fife beat to quarters, bulkheads 
were knocked away, the guns were released from 
their lashings and the whole dread paraphernalia 
of battle was produced. And, after the lapse of a 
few minutes of hurry and confusion, every man 
and boy was at his post, ready to do his best 
service for his country — except the band of musi- 




x. 



Y. 









/: 



>: 



.( 



I 



In Grim Battle Array. 97 

cians who came aft in a body and claimed exemp- 
tion from the affray l)y virtue of llieir contract. 
And, with the Captain's permission, they safely 
stowed themselves away in the cable tier. 

We had only one sick man on the list [the 
boatswain] and he, at the cry of battle, hurried 
from his cot, feeble as he was, to take his post 
of danger. A few of the junior midshipmen were 
stationed on the berthdeck below with orders 
given in our hearing to shoot any man who 
attempted to run from his quarters. 

Our men were all in good spirits, though they 
did not scruple to express the wish that the 
coming foe was a Frenchman rather than a 
Yankee. We had been told by the Americans on 
board, that frigates in the American service car- 
ried more and heavier metal than ours. This, 
together with our consciousness of superiority 
over the French at sea, led us to a preference for 
a French antagonist. 

The Americans among our number felt quite 
disconcerted by the necessity that compelled them 
to fight against their own countrymen. One of 
them, named John Card, as brave a seaman as 
ever trod a plank, ventured to present himself 
to the captain as a prisoner, frankly declaring his 
objections to fight. Captain Carden, very ungen- 
erously ordered him to his quarters, threatening 



98 In Battle's Awful Din. 

to shoot him if he made the request again. Poor 
fellow ! He obeyed the unjust command and was 
killed by a shot from his own countrymen. 

As the approaching ship showed American 
colors, all doubt of her character was at an end. 
" We must fight her " was the conviction in every 
breast. Every possible arrangement that could 
insure success was accordingly made. The guns 
were shotted, the matches [long pieces of slow- 
burning rope for igniting guns] were lighted ; 
for, although our guns were furnished with 
first-rate locks, they were also provided with 
matches, attached by lanyards, in case the lock 
should miss fire. 

A lieutenant then passed through the ship 
directing the marines and boarders, who were 
furnished with pikes, cutlasses and pistols, how 
to proceed if it became necessary to board the 
enemy. He was followed by the captain who 
exhorted the men to fidelity and courage, urging 
upon their consideration the well-known motto 
of brave Nelson : " England expects every man 
to do his duty." 

In addition to all these preparations on deck, 
some men were stationed in the tops with small 
arms, whose duty it was to attend to trimming 
the sails and to use their muskets, provided we 
came to close action. There were others also be- 



Beginning the Fight. 99 

low, on deck, called " sail trimmers " to assist 
in working the ship, should it be necessary to 
shift her position during- the action. 

My station was at the fifth gun on the main 
deck. It was my duty to supply my gun with 
powder, a boy being appointed to each gun in a 
ship on the side we engaged, for that purpose. 
A woolen screen, saturated with water, was 
placed before the entrance to the magazine, with a 
hole in it, through which cartridges were passed 
to the boys. We received them there and, cover- 
ing them with our jackets [to prevent sparks 
from prematurely exploding them] hurried to our 
respective guns. These precautions are taken to 
prevent the powder taking fire before it reaches 
the gun. 

Thus we all stood, awaiting orders, in motion- 
less suspense. At last we fired three guns from 
the larboard [port] side. This was followed by 
the command : 

*' Cease firing ; you are throwing away your 
shot." Then came the order : 

" Wear ship and prepare to attack enemy with 
your starboard guns." 

Soon after this I heard firing from some other 
quarter which I, at first, supposed to be a dis- 
charge from our quarter deck guns, though it 



loo In Battle's Awful Din. 

proved to be the roar of the enemy's cannon. 
A strange noise, such as I had never before 
heard, next arrested my attention. It sounded 
Hke the tearing of sails, just over our heads. 
This, I soon ascertained, was the wind or whist- 
Hng of the enemy's shot through the air. 

After a few minutes cessation, the firing re- 
commenced. The roaring of cannon could now 
be heard from all parts of our trembling ship and, 
mingling as it did with that of our foe, it made 
a most hideous noise. By and by I heard the 
shot strike the side of our ship. 

Then the whole scene grew indescribably con- 
fused and horrible. It was like some awfully 
tremendous thunder storm, whose deafening roar 
is attended by incessant streaks of lightning, 
carrying death in every flash and strewing the 
ground with victims of its wrath. Only, in our 
case the scene was rendered more horrible than 
that by the presence of torrents of blood which 
dyed our decks. 

Though the recital may be painful yet, as it 
will reveal the horrors of war and show at what 
a fearful price a victory is won or lost, I will 
record the incidents as they met my eye during 
the progress of this dreadful fight. 

I was busily supplying my gun with powder 
when I saw blood suddenly fly from the arm of 



A Scene of IIorrok. ioi 

a man stationed at our i^un, I saw nothing 
strike him. The effect alone was visible. In an 
instant, the third lieutenant tied his handkerchief 
round the wounded arm and sent the groaning 
wretch below to the surgeon. 

The cries of the wounded now rang through 
all parts of the ship. These were carried to the 
cockpit as fast as they fell, while those more 
fortunate men who were killed outright were 
immediately thrown overboard [to that shark!] 

As I was stationed but a short distance from 
the main hatchway, I could catch a glimpse at 
all who were carried below. A glance was all I 
could indulge in for the boys belonging to the 
guns next to mine were wounded in the early 
part of the action and I had to spring with all 
my might to keep three or four guns supplied 
with cartridges. 

I saw two or three of these lads fall nearly 
together. One of them was struck in the leg by 
a large shot. He had to suffer amputation above 
the wound. The other had a grape or canister 
shot sent through his ankle. A stout Yorkshire 
man lifted him in his arms and hurried him to the 
cockpit. He had his foot cut off and was thus 
made lame for life. 

Two of the boys stationed on the quarterdeck 
were killed. They were both Portuguese. A 



I02 In Battle's Awful Din. 

man who saw one of them killed, afterward told 
me that his powder [cartridge] caught fire and 
burnt the flesh almost off his face. In this pitiable 
condition the agonized boy lifted up both hands, 
as if imploring relief, when a passing shot cut 
him in two. 

I was an eye-witness to a sight equally revolt- 
ing. A man named Aldrich had one of his hands 
cut off by a shot and, almost at the same moment, 
he received another shot which tore open his 
bowels in a terrible manner. As he fell, two or 
three men caught him in their arms and (as he 
could not possibly live) threw him overboard to 
find relief by death in the waves. 

One of the officers in my division, also fell in 
my sight. He was a noble-hearted fellow named 
Nan Kivell. A grape or canister shot struck him 
near the heart. Exclaiming: 

"Oh! My God!" he fell and was carried 
below, where, shortly afterward, he died. 

Mr. Hope, our first lieutenant, was wounded 
by a grummet or small iron ring, probably torn 
from a hammock clew by a shot. He went below, 
shouting to the men to fight on. Having had his 
wound dressed, he came up again, shouting at 
the top of his voice, bidding us to fight with all 
our might. 

The battle went on. Our men kept cheering 







<3 



2 § 



w' tC 



■r. '7 . 

^ -r: 5) 









Dreadful Carnac.r. 103 

with all their strength. I cheered with tliem, 
though I confess I scarcely knew what for. Cer- 
tainly there was nothing very inspiriting in the as- 
pect of things where I was stationed. So terrible 
had been the work of destrnction around us, it 
was termed a slaughter house. Not only had we 
had several boys killed or wounded but several 
of the guns were disabled. The one I belonged 
to had a piece of the muzzle knocked out and 
when the ship rolled, it struck a beam of the 
upper deck with such force as to become jammed 
and fixed in that position. 

A 24-pound shot also passed through the screen 
of the magazine, immediately over the orifice 
through which we passed the powder. The 
school master received a death wound. The 
brave boatswain, who came from the Sick Bay to 
the din of battle, was fastening a stopper to a 
back stav which had been shot awav, when his 
head was smashed to pieces by a cannon ball. 
Another man, going to complete the unfinished 
task, also was struck down. Another of our mid- 
shipmen received a severe wound. 

The unfortunate wardroom steward, who at- 
tempted to cut his throat on a former occasion, 
was killed. A fellow named John, who for some 
petty oflfense had been sent on board as punish- 
ment, was carried past me wounded. I dis- 



104 



In Battle's Awful Din. 



tinctly heard the large blood-drops fall pat, pat, 
pat on the deck. His wounds were mortal. 
Even a poor goat, kept by the officers for her 
milk, did not escape the general carnage. Her 
hind legs were shot off and poor Nan was thrown 
overboard. 



CHAPTER X. 

SCENES AFTER THE BATTLE. 
(Leech's narrative concluded.) 

Such were the terrible scenes amid which we 
kept on our shouting- and firing-. Our men fought 
hke tigers. Some of them pulled off their jackets, 
others their jackets and waists ; while some, still 
more determined, had taken off their shirts and 
with nothing but a handkerchief tied around the 
waistbands of their trousers, fought like heroes. 
Jack Sadler was one of these. 

I also observed a boy named Cooper stationed 
at a gun some distance from the magazine. He 
came to and fro on the full run and appeared to 
be as " merry as a cricket." The third lieutenant 
cheered him along occasionally by saying: 

" Well done, my boy. You are worth your 
weight in gold." 

I have often been asked what my feelings were 
during this fight. I felt pretty much as I sup- 
pose every one does at such a time. That men 
are without thought when they stand amid the 
dying and dead is too absurd an idea to be enter- 
tained for a moment. We all appeared cheerful 



io6 Scenes After the Battle. 

bat I know that many a serious thought ran 
through my mind. Still, what could we do but 
keep up a semblance at least of animation? 

To run from our quarters would have been 
certain death at the hands of our own officers. 
To give way to gloom and fear or to show fear 
would do no good and might brand us with the 
name of cowards and insure certain defeat. Our 
only true philosophy, therefore, was to make the 
best of our situation by fighting bravely and 
cheerfully. I thought a great deal, however, of 
the other world. Every groan, every falling man 
told me that the next instant I might be before 
the Judge of all the earth. 

For this, I felt unprepared. But, being with- 
out any particular knowledge of religious truth, 
I satisfied myself by repeating again and again 
the Lord's prayer and promising that, if spared, 
I would be more attentive to religious duties 
than ever before. This promise, at the time, 
I had no doubt of keeping. But I have since 
learned that it is easier to make promises, amidst 
the roar of cannon in battle or in the horrors of 
shipwreck, than to keep them when danger is 
over and safety smiles upon our path. 

While these thoughts secretly agitated my 
mind, the din of battle continued. Grape and 
canister shot were pouring through our port holes 



A Storm of Shot. 107 

like leaden rain, carrying;' death in their train. 
The larg^e shot crashed a.qainst the sides of the 
shii) like monstrous sledge hammers, shakinj:^ 
her to the very keel, or passing through her 
timbers scatte**ed terrific splinters which did more 
appalling" work than even their death-dealing 
blows. 

Some idea may be formed of the effect of grape 
and canister when it is known that grapeshot is 
fonned bv seven or eight balls confined to an iron 
ring and tied in a cloth. These balls are scattered 
by the explosion of the powder. Canister shot is 
made by filling a powder canister with balls, 
each as large as two or three musket balls. These 
also scatter with direful effect when discharged. 

What, then, with splinters, cannon balls, grape 
and canister poured incessantly upon us, you may 
be assured that the work of destruction went on 
in a manner which must have been satisfactory 
even to the King of Terrors himself. 

Suddenly, the rattling of the iron hail ceased. 
We were ordered to stop firing. A profound 
silence ensued, broken only by the stifled groans 
of the brave sufferers below. It was soon ascer- 
tained that the enemy had forged ahead to repair 
damages, for she was not so disabled but what 
she could sail without difificulty while we were 
so utterly cut up that we were completely helpless. 
8 



io8 Scenes After the Battle. 

Our head braces were shot away. The fore 
and main topmasts were gone. The mizzen mast 
hung over the stern, having carried several men 
over with its fall. We were in a state of complete 
wreck. 

A council was now held among the officers on 
the quarterdeck. Our condition was perilous in 
the extreme. Victory or escape were alike im- 
possible. Our ship was disabled, many of our 
men were killed and many more wounded. The 
enemy would, without doubt, bear down on us in 
a few moments and, as she could now choose her 
own position, would rake us fore and aft. Any 
further resistance, therefore, was folly. So, in 
spite of Lieutenant Hope, who was for fighting 
to the last and sinking alongside, it was deter- 
mined to strike our bunting. 

This was done by the hands of a brave fellow 
named Watson, whose saddened brow told how 
severely it pained his lion heart to do it. To me 
it was a pleasing sight, for I had seen enough 
fighting for one Sabbath. His Britannic Maj- 
esty's frigate Macedonmt was now a prize of the 
American frigate United States. 

[When the news of this battle reached England 
Lord Churchill, very kindly, sent a copy of 
Captain Carden's official report with the list of 
killed and wounded to Samuel's mother at Blen- 







< 



P-, 

O b/: 

"-> .5 

CO t^ 

1^ 



J 



-ex. 



>^ "^ 



y. 



fi 






(< 



Strkwn with Wounded." 109 



heim ; calling attention to the fact that Leech's 
name did not appear in the list of casualties.] 

Inimcdiately upon the surrender I went below 
to see how matters appeared there. The first 
object I met v;as a man bearing a limb which had 
just been detached from some suffering wretch. 
The leg was thrown overboard. Pursuing my 
way to the wardroom I necessarily passed 
through the steerage, which was strewn with the 
wounded. 

It was a sad spectacle, made more appalling by 
the groans and cries which rent the air. Some 
•were groaning, others were swearing most bit- 
terly, a few were praying, while those last arrived 
were begging most piteously to have their wounds 
dressed next. The surgeon and his mate were 
smeared with blood from head to foot. They 
looked more like butchers than doctors. 

Having so many patients, they had once shifted 
their quarters from the cockpit to the steerage. 
They now moved to the wardroom and the long 
table, round which the officers had sat over many 
a merry feast, was soon covered with bleeding 
forms of maimed and mutilated seamen. 

While looking around the wardroom I heard 
a noise above, occasioned by the arrival of the 
boats from the conquering frigate. Very soon a 
lieutenant, I think his name was [John B.] Nich- 



no Scenes After the Battle. 

olson, came into the wardroom and said to the 
busy surgeon : 

" How do you do, doctor ? " 

" I have enough to do," repHed he shaking his 
head sadly, " You have made wretched work for 



us." 



These officers were not strangers to each other 
for they had met when the two frigates were 
lying at Norfolk, some months before. 

I now set to work to render all the aid in my 
power to the sufferers. Our carpenter, named 
Reed, had his leg cut off. I helped to carry him 
to the after wardroom ; but he soon breathed out 
his life there — and then I assisted in throwing 
his mangled remains overboard. 

We got out the cots as fast as possible for most 
of the wounded were stretched out on the gory 
deck. One poor fellow who laid with a broken 
thigh, begged me to give him a drink of water. 
I gave him some. He looked unutterable grati- 
tude, drank — and died. 

It was with exceeding difficulty that I moved 
through the steerage, it was so covered with 
mangled men and so slippery with streams of 
blood. There was a poor boy crying as if his 
heart would break. He had been the servant to 
the bold boatswain whose head had been dashed 
to pieces by a cannon ball. Poor boy ! He felt 



Heartrending Scenes. hi 

that he lost his only friend. I tried to comfort him 
by reminding him that he onj;'ht to be thankful 
for havings escaped deatli himself. 

Here also I met one of my messmates who 
showed the utmost joy at seeinf]^ me alive for he 
had heard that I had been killed. He was look- 
ing up his messmates which, he said, was always 
done by sailors after a battle. We found two of 
our mess wounded. One was the Swede, Log- 
holm, who came so near drowning, a few months 
before. We held him while the surgeon cut off 
his leg above the knee. 

The task was most painful to behold, the sur- 
geon using his knife and saw on human flesh 
and bones as freely as the butcher at the shambles 
on the carcass of a beast. Our other messmate 
suffered still more than the Swede. He was sadly 
mutilated about the legs and thighs with splinters. 
Such scenes of suffering as I saw in that ward- 
room I hope never to witness again. 

Most of our officers and men were taken on 
board the victor ship. I was left, with a few 
others, to take care of the wounded. My master, 
the sailing master, was also among the officers 
who continued in our ship. Most of the men 
who remained were unfit for any service, having 
broken into the spirit room and made themselves 
drunk. Some broke into the purser's room and 



112 Scenes After the Battle. 

helped themselves to clothing while others, by 
previous agreement, took possession of their 
dead messmates' property. 

For my own part I was content to help myself 
to a little of the officers' provisions which did 
me more good than could be obtained from rum. 
What was worse than all, however, was the folly 
of the sailors in giving spirits to their wounded 
messmates, since it only served to aggravate their 
distress. 

Among the wounded was a brave fellow named 
Wells. After the surgeon had amputated and 
dressed his arm, he walked about in fine spirits — 
as if he had received only a slight injury. Indeed, 
under the operation he manifested a similar hero- 
ism, observing to the surgeon: 

" I have lost my arm in the service of my 
country but I don't mind it doctor, it's the fortune 
of war." 

Cheerful and gay as he was he soon died. His 
companions gave him rum; he was attacked by 
fever and died. Thus his messmates actually 
killed him with kindness. 

We had all sorts of dispositions and tempera- 
ments among our crew. To me it was a matter 
of ereat interest to watch their various manifesta- 
tions. Some who had lost their messmates, ap- 
peared to care nothing about it while others were 



"Oil Bill!" 113 

grieving- witli all the tenderness of women. Of 
these was the survivor of two seamen who had 
formerly been soldiers in the same regiment. He 
bemoaned the loss of his comrade with expres- 
sions of profoimdest grief. 

There were, also, two boatswain's mates named 
Adams and Brown, who had been messmates for 
several years in the same ship. Brown was 
killed or so wounded that he died soon after the 
battle. It was really a touching spectacle to see 
the rough, hardy features of the brave old sailor, 
streaming with tears as he picked the dead body 
of his friend from among the wounded and 
gently carried it to the ship's side, saying to the 
inanimate form he bore : 

*' Oh Bill ! We have sailed together in a number 
of ships, we have been in many gales and some 
battles. But this is the worst day I have seen ! 
We must now part ! " 

Here he dropped the body into the sea and 
then a fresh torrent of tears streaming over his 
weather-beaten face, he added : 

" I can do no more for you. Bill. Farewell ! 
God be with you ! " 

Here was an instance of genuine friendship, 
worth more than the heartless professions of 
thousands who, in the fancied superiorty of their 
elevated position in the social circle, will deign 



114 



Scenes After the Battle. 



nothing but a silly sneer at this record of a 
sailor's grief. 

It was a rather singular circumstance that, in 
both the contending frigates, the second boat- 
swain's mate bore the name of William Brown ; 
and that they were both killed. Yet such was 
the fact. 

The great number of wounded kept our sur- 
geon and his mate busily employed at their horrid 
work until late at night and it was a long time 
before they had much leisure. 

I remember passing round the ship on the day 
after the battle. Coming to a hammock, I found 
some one in it, apparently asleep. I spoke. He 
made no answer. I looked into the hammock — 
he was dead. My messmates coming up, we 
threw the corpse overboard — it was no time for 
useless ceremxOny. The man had probably crawled 
into his hammock (badly wounded) the day be- 
fore and, not being noticed in the general distress, 
bled to death ! 

When the prize crew from the United States 
first boarded our frigate to take possession our 
men, heated with the fury of the battle, exasper- 
ated by the sight of their dead and wounded ship- 
mates (and rendered dangerous by the rum they 
had obtained from the spirit room) felt and ex- 
hibited some disposition to fight their captors. 



Cleaning the Wreck. 115 

But after the confusion had subsided and part of 
our men were snugly stowed away in the Ameri- 
can ship and the remainder found themselves 
kindly used in tlieir own, the utmost good feeling 
began to prevail. 

We took hold and cleansed the ship, using hot 
vinegar to take out the scent of the blood that 
dyed the white of our planks with crimson. We 
also took hold and aided in fitting out our dis- 
abled frigate for her voyage. This [after two 
days of hard work] being accomplished, both 
ships sailed in company for the American coast. 

I soon felt myself perfectly at home with the 
American seamen ; so much so that I preferred 
to mess with them. My shipmates also partici- 
pated in similar feelings in both ships. All idea 
that we had been trying to shoot each other's 
brains out so shortly before, seemed forgotten. 
We ate together, drank together, joked, sang, 
laughed and told yarns. In short, a perfect union 
of ideas, feelings and purposes seemed to exist 
among all hands. 

A corresponding state of unanimity existed, I 
was told, among the officers. Commodore De- 
catur showed himself to be a gentleman as well 
as a hero in his treatment of the officers of the 
Macedonian. When Captain Carden oflfered his 
sword to the commodore, he remarked as he did 
so: 



ii6 



Scenes After the Battle. 



" I am an undone man. I am the first British 
naval officer that has struck his flag to an 
American ! " 

The noble commodore either refused to receive 
the sword or immediately returned it, smiling as 
he said : 

" You are mistaken, sir. Your Guerriere has 
been taken by us, so the flag of a frigate was 
struck before yours." 

This news somewhat revived the spirits of the 
old captain. But, no doubt, he still felt his soul 
sting with shame and mortification at the loss of 
his ship. Participating as he did in the haughty 
spirit of the British aristocracy, it was natural for 
him to feel galled and wounded to the quick in 
the position of a conquered man. 

We were now making the best of our way to 
America. Notwithstanding the patched up con- 
dition of the Macedonian, she was far superior 
in a sailing capacity to her conqueror. The 
United States had always been a dull sailer and 
had been christened by the name of Old Wagon. 
Whenever a boat came alongside of our frigate 
and the boatswain's mate was ordered to " pipe 
away " the boat's crew, he used to sound his 
shrill call on the whistle and bawl out : 

" Away, Wagoners, away ! " instead of *' Away, 
United States men, away ! " 



"Away, Wagoners, Away!" 117 

This piece of pleasantry used to be rebuked by 
the officers but in a manner that showed that they 
enjoyed tb.e joke. They usually replied : 

" Boatswain's mate, you rascal, pipe away 
United States men, not Wagoners. We have 
no wagoners on board of a ship ! " 

Still, in spite of rebuke, the joke went on until 
it grew stale by repetition. One thing was made 
certain, however, by the sailing qualities of the 
Macedonian; which was, that if we had been 
disposed to escape from our foe before the action, 
we could have done so with all imaginable ease. 
This, however, would justly have exposed us to 
disgrace, while our capture did not. 

{End of Leech's narrative.) 



CHAPTER XL 
TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO PORT. 

Captain Carden had entered into this momen- 
tous battle with consummate skill and shrewd- 
ness — but he was fatally mistaken in his surmises. 
He at first supposed that his antagonist was the 
American frigate Essex which, as he knew, was 
armed almost entirel}- with short range guns and, 
quickly discovering that he had the superiority 
in sailing, he held his ship at long range so that 
his long i8-pounders would be effective beyond 
the reach of the American short cannon. He 
soon discovered his mistake and gallantly came 
to close quarters — but not before he had sustained 
irreparable damage. 

While the loss in the Macedonian had been 
frightful (amounting to more than one-third of 
the entire ship's company), as so graphically de- 
scribed by young Leech, the casualties in the 
United States were insignificant : there being only 
five men killed and seven wounded as opposed .to 
the thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded in 
the English ship. The United States was only 
ten or twelve feet longer than her rival and, 



Disproportionate Losses. i 19 

tlion.qh 1)cincr inferior in sailinc;' qualities, slic 
was stronc^cr and better armed and equij^pcd — as 
Captain Garden well knew in advance. The fol- 
lowing table will fairly represent tbc strenj^ilb of 
tbc contending: frij^ates : 

Comparative Forces and Losses. 

Gnn« Lbn. Crew Kllle.l Wounded Total Tlm« 

United States 54 787 478 5 7 12 ih. 30m. 

RIacedonian 49 555 297 36 68 104 

Scarcely any injury was sustained in tbe 
American's hull or riggino^ so that, after splicing 
some ropes and making a few repairs, she was 
in a condition to enter upon a similar action two 
hours after the Macedonian surrendered. The 
English frigate, on the other hand, was com- 
pletely dismantled — clearly showing the immense 
superiority of American naval construction, arma- 
ment and equipment. 

When the news of this second frigate action 
reached England, it created the deepest gloom. 
At first it was not believed for the London Times, 
in its issue of December 28, 1812, said: *' There 
is a report that another English frigate, the 
Macedonian, has been captured by an American. 
We shall certainly be very backward in believing 
a second recurrence of such a national disgrace. 
.... We have heard that the statement is dis- 
credited at the Admiralty but we know not on 



I20 Triumphant Return to Port. 

what precise grounds. Certainly there was a 
time when it would not have been believed that 
the American navy could have appeared upon 
the seas after a six months' war with England ; 
much less that it could, within that period, have 
been twice victorious. Sed tempora mutantur! " 

The uncomfortable suspicion evidently grew 
and, on the next day, the acute pang of confirma- 
tion extorted from the British Hon the following 
cry : " Oh miserable advocates ! Why, this 
renders the charge of mismanagement far heavier 
than before! In the name of God, what was 
done with this immense superiority of force? 
Why was not a squadron of observation ofif every 
port which contained an American ship of war? 
W^hy was not Rodgers intercepted with his whole 
squadron and taken within sight of his own 
coasts ? " 

On the following day The Thunderer's rage 
subsided into the following lament : " Oh, what 
a charm is hereby dissolved! What hopes will 
be excited in the breasts of our enemies ! The 
land spell of the French is broken [alluding to 
Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow] and 
so is our sea spell." 

In its issue of December 26, 1812, The London 
Morning Chronicle, with greater moderation 
asks : " Is it not sickening to see that no ex- 



A Hazardous Return. 121 

pcricncc has been sufficient to rouse our Ad- 
miralty to take measures that may protect the 
British flai^ from such disp^race?" 

Although the United States had won a signal 
victory over the Macedonian, it was yet far from 
certain that she would secure the fruits of the 
battle. The vessels were on the eastern side of 
the Atlantic and had a long distance to sail be- 
fore they could reach an American port. 

Young Leech describes the home passage as 
follows : " Our voyage was one of considerable 
excitement. The seas swarmed with British 
cruisers and it was extremely doubtful whether 
the United States would elude their grasp and 
reach the protection of an American port with her 
prize. I hoped most sincerely to avoid them, as 
did most of my old shipmates. Our former offi- 
cers, of course, were anxious for a sight of a 
British flag. 

" But we saw none and, after a prosperous 
voyage, the welcome cry of * Land ho ! ' was 
heard." 

Entering the eastern end of Long Island 
Sound, the frigates made the port of New Lon- 
don. The United States came safely to anchor 
but the Macedonian, owing to a sudden shift 
in the wind, was compelled to remain in the 
offing several hours. Finally, fearing that she 



122 Triumphant Return to Port. 

might fall into the hands of a hostile squadron, 
she made for Newport where the prize was 
warmly greeted. 

By this time most of the English wounded 
were well on the road to recovery. The last one 
to die was Thomas Whittaker, who had been 
badly injured by splinters. He suffered such 
pain that he finally became crazed so that it was 
necessary to confine him. Just before land was 
sighted he was mercifully relieved from his 
sufferings by death. Sewing up his body in his 
hammock his messmates placed it on a grating in 
a bow port. Midshipman Archer of the Mace- 
donian read the beautiful burial service of the 
Church of England and at the words : 

" We commit the body of our brother to the 
deep/' the grating was elevated and, amid pro- 
found silence, the body splashed heavily into the 
sea. 

The wounded were now sent ashore where 
they received every attention while the prisoners 
were confined in a barn under a not very strict 
guard ; for it appears many of them escaped — not 
to return to the British service but to keep away 
from it. 

After a short stay at Newport the Macedonian 
got under weigh and, joining the United States 
at New London, both ships proceeded to New 




AN 1812 POWDER P,OV CARRYING CARTRIDGES 
Drau.')i from a contemporaneous sketch. 



Showing Visitors About. 123 

York by the Hell Gate route; the men in both 
ships being kept busy answering cheers from 
passing craft. 

Dropping anchor near Ward Island, the frig- 
ates were visited by many thousand j)eople and 
as Samuel records : " Finding them extremely 
inquisitive and being tolerably good natured my- 
self, I found profitable business in conducting 
them about the ship, describing the action and 
pointing out the places where particular individ- 
uals fell. For these services I gained some money 
and much good will. 

" The people who had been to see us, on return- 
ing to the shore, used to tell how an English boy 
had conducted them all over the ship and told 
them the particulars of the fight. It soon became 
quite common, for those who came afterward, 
to inquire if I was ' that English boy taken ' in 
her?" 

It was by means of the money and good will 
thus earned that Samuel finally made his escape 
from the British service. Of course, the Ameri- 
can officers could not let him go free because they 
were responsible for their prisoners so that, when 
an exchange was efifected, they could be pro- 
duced. Then again, as Leech well knew, if 
he attempted to escape a horrible punishment 
awaited him from the lash or noose — possibly 

9 



124 Triumphant Return to Port. 

both — if he ever again was caught by the British, 
for his act would be deemed desertion. Further- 
more, the Admiralty offered special bounty for 
the apprehension of any deserter who had been 
captured by the Americans. 

Fully alive to the danger attending it, Samuel 
determined to escape and made his plans accord- 
ingly. Mr. Tinker, the pilot who took the frig- 
ates from New London to New York, very 
kindly offered to take Leech as an apprentice if 
he once got free ; in fact, many of the visitors to 
the frigate were so pleased with the " bright 
English lad " that they offered him any assistance 
he might desire. 

No time was to be lost, however, if Leech was 
to embrace this, probably, his only opportunity 
ever to escape from the British for he learned 
that a cartel was on its way to New York for 
the purpose of conveying all the English officers 
and seamen to Halifax. Indeed, the boat was ex- 
pected to arrive at any moment. 

On the day before Christmas there was an 
unusual number of visitors aboard the prize frig- 
ate and, as there was a large proportion of women 
who could not very well climb the rope ladder 
up the Macedonian's steep sides, Captain Carden 
very gallantly caused a hogshead to be rigged so 
that after one head had been knocked in and part 



Getting Ladies Aboard. 125 

of tlic front cut out, a comfortable '* elevator car " 
was produced by placinq- a scat atluvart it. 

This " hog^shead " was lowered from a yard- 
arm into the shore boat alonp^side of the frip^atc. 
One lady at a time seated herself in the " car " 
and, throwing a fla,c: around her feet, was merrily 
hoisted up by a c^ang^ of jolly tars. Gaining the 
level of the deck, the hogshead was swung inboard 
and the lady could step out with ease. " This 
contrivance," records Leech, " afforded a great 
deal of amusement and kept the British officers 
and merry tars agreeably busy waiting on their 
fair visitors. 

It was when this scene of unusual activity was 
at its height, that Samuel made his bold dash 
for liberty. He made arrangements with the 
American boatswain, Mr. Dawson, to have his 
clothing sent to New York if he (Leech) suc- 
ceeded in getting clear. Noticing a small colored 
boy in a boat alongside the Macedonian, Leech 
quietly asked : 

*' Can you tell me where I can get some geese 
and turkeys on shore for our officers ? " 

" I guess you can get some at the houses," 
responded the youth." 

" Well, then," continued Leech. '' will you set 
me ashore. I want to get some for our officers." 
To this the colored boy replied : 



t 



126 Triumphant Return to Port. 



" Yes, if you will go and ask my master who 
is on board your ship." 

This was an obstacle to Samuel's plans he had 
not foreseen. He knew that the master would 
not give the desired permission so he gave over 
the attempt in despair. 

Going below, he met one of his shipmates, a 
boy two years younger than himself, named James 
Day. Leech revealed to him his plan to escape 
and urged him to go with him. Day at first 
declined to take the risk, giving as his reason that 
he had no money with which to pay expenses. 

" But I have money," replied Leech, '' and as 
long as I have a shilling you shall have half of it." 

" But I am afraid we cannot get away without 
being caught and so get a thorough flogging — 
and perhaps be hung," protested Day. 

A new idea had now struck our hero and 
clutching Day by the arm he said : 

" Never mind that. I have contrived that busi- 
ness. The boat's waiting to set us on shore. 
Come along, Jim, don't be frightened. * Nothing 
venture, nothing have,' you know. Come, come. 
Here's the boat alongside," and, fairly dragging 
the boy. Leech returned to the gangway and 
boldly assured the colored lad that his master had 
given the desired consent, provided haste was 
made. The two runaways jumped into the boat 



i 



A Dash for Liberty. 127 

and, ill a jifly, were being pnlled toward tlie 
shore. 

This was the critical moment of the undertak- 
ing- and Sanuiel's heart was fairly pumping with 
anxiety and fear. Every moment he imagined 
he heard a stern command from the frigate to 
return. Every rattle aboard he construed to be 
a pursuing boat making after him. 

At one moment his heart fairly jumped into his 
throat, when a harsh voice did hail them from 
the frigate. It was not from a British officer, 
however, but from the colored boy's master who 
shouted out: 

'* Where are you going with that boat ? " 

Recovering from the fright. Leech pursuaded 
the negro that his master was only bidding him 
to make haste, so the lad replied : 

" I am going to get some geese, sir," and pulled 
on so they were beyond reach of hearing. In 
another moment Leech, for the first time and to 
his unspeakable delight, stood on American soil — 
a free lad. He never learned if the colored boy's 
master ever asked if he was not the biggest 
" goose " he was going after. Leech gladly 
gave him half a dollar and set out on foot for 
New York, some ten miles distant. 

A ten-mile walk, in former days was a mere 
trifle to the sturdy English runaway. Many a 



128 Triumphant Return to Port. 

time had he covered that distance among the 
pleasant fields and parks about Wanstead and 
Blenheim. But now he discovered that he had 
been aboard ship so long that less than half that 
distance exhausted him — it required time to re- 
gain his " land legs." So, when yet some distance 
from the city, the boys put up at a roadside 
tavern. 

The inm.ates seemed somewhat surprised to see 
two lads asking for lodgings in such a confident 
manner but, when they learned that they were 
deserters from the British frigate, they extended 
every hospitality. Forming a circle round the 
fireplace in the public room, they listened atten- 
tively to the narrative and songs of the runaways. 
At a late hour the boys were shown into a clean 
room and, for the first time in years, they slept 
in a bed. 

It seemed strange to us," recorded Leech, 

to find ourselves in a bed after sleeping so long 
in hammocks. Nevertheless we slept soundly 
and, to our inexpressible pleasure, arose on the 
following morning at our leisure instead of being 
driven out by a swearing boatswain at our heels." 

After a hearty breakfast (doubly delicious on 
account of the shore cooking and fresh provi- 
sions) Leech, with all the dignity he could sum- 
mon, marched proudly up to the " captain's 



(I 



A Kind Tavern-Keki'Kk. 129 

office " and asked for a sctllcnient, clinking the 
money noisily in the palm of his hand as an 
earnest of his good faith and *' financial ability." 
Truly, it was one of the proudest moments of his 
life. He was somewhat crestfallen (though none 
the less pleased) when the host refused to take a 
cent for the entertainment. 

Three days after Leech's escape from the 
Macedonian, the cartel arrived and on the same 
day sailed for Nova Scotia with the remaining 
English prisoners. Luck}', indeed, was it that our 
hero made the venture when he did. 



CHAPTER XII. 
TRIALS OF A DESERTER. 

Arriving in New York .the runaways met sev- 
eral other deserters from the Macedonian and 
through them found lodgings in a sailors' board- 
ing house kept by a widow named Elms, near the 
old Fly Market in Front Street. After spending 
a week in gratifying a natural desire to see a 
strange city, Leech was startled one day by the 
roaring of cannon. It proved to be salutes in 
honor of the United States' and Macedonian's 
arrival in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, those ships 
having made the, then, dangerous passage 
through Hell Gate. 

Leech now ventured aboard his old home ship, 
to get his clothes from Boatswain Dawson as 
pre-arranged — and the first person he met gave 
him a fright. It was none other than Lieutenant 
Nicholson of the United States who eyed our 
hero sharply but afterward gave him a kindly 
reception. The American sailors, also congrat- 
ulated him on his success in getting clear of the 
British frigate. 

It was about this time that the citizens of New 



Banquet of Victory. 131 

York gave to the officers and men of the United 
States a public dinner at the City Hotel and free 
admission to a theatrical entertainment. As a 
promising citizen of America, young Leech was 
invited to attend. He accepted but, on overhaul- 
ing his wardrobe, found that his English uniform 
would be unpleasantly conspicuous on account 
of the regulation buttons. This difficulty was 
overcome, however, by the skill of his widowed 
landlady who managed to cover the metal buttons 
with blue cloth. 

This celebrated dinner (and after performance) 
is a matter of history but Leech has thrown some 
interesting side-lights on it in his own peculiar 
fashion. He said the dinner was " followed by 
more than the usual amount of drinking, laughing 
and talking ; for, as liquor was furnished in great 
abundance, the men could not resist the tempta- 
tion to get drunk. As they left the room to go to 
the theater, the poor plates on the sideboard 
proclaimed that ' Jack was full three sheets in the 
wind.' Almost everyone, as he passed, gave 
them a crack crying out as they fell : 

" ' Save the pieces.' " 

At the theater Samuel saw Decatur and re- 
cords : " I was much struck with the appearance 
of Decatur that evening as he sat in full uniform, 
his pleasant face alive with the excitement of the 



132 Trials of a Deserter. 

occasion. He formed a striking contrast to the 
appearance he made when he visited our ship 
on the passage to New York. Then he wore an 
old straw hat and a plain suit of clothes which 
made him look more like a farmer than a naval 
commander." 

Leech concludes his account by saying that, 
after the theater, the men were ordered to report 
to the frigate the next morning but : 

" It was a week before they all returned." 

Another interesting piece of information Sam- 
uel gives us relates to a little trick these Yankee 
tars played on Decatur. He says : 

'' Of course, this profusion of praise turned the 
brains of some of these old tars and at every 
opportunity they would steal ashore for a spree. 
This brought them into trouble and some to the 
gangway to be flogged. To avoid the punishment 
the foxy old salts would visit the commodore's 
lady with some piteous tale, begging her to inter- 
cede for them with the captain. This she did with 
almost constant success. The lucky tar would 
then go on board telling his shipmates that: 

" ' She has a soul to be saved.' " 

Mention has been made in these pages of Jack 
Sadler, the bosom friend of the redoubtable Bob 
Hammond. Sadler managed to get ashore and 
became an enthusiastic Yankee. He enlisted in 



Disturbing the Meeting. 133 

the army and was quartered at Hartford. One 
Sunday his company was marched to church and 
the good minister announced as his text : 

" Fear God and honor the King." Jack, with 
vivid recollection of many a cruel lash on his 
back, so far forgot himself as to jump up in his 
pew and shout : " Don't let us hear about the 
king — but about Congress ! " 

The dangers and difficulties English seamen 
experienced in entering the American service in 
those days, is amusingly described by Leech as 
follows : " One day, I was sauntering around the 
wharves with my companion, James Day, when I 
met a number of the Macedonian crew who had 
shipped aboard the John Adams and they dragged 
me aboard with them. 

" To avoid being detected it was usual for our 
men to assume new names and to hail from some 
American port. I had some objection to this, as 
I feared it might bring me into the awkward 
dilemma of the Irishman who was caught aboard 
an American vessel by a British cruiser. After 
he declared himself an American the officer asked 
him : 

" ' What part of America did you come from ? * 

'' ' I used to belong to Philmadelph but now I 
belong to Philmaph York,' replied Paddy, in a 
vain endeavor to conceal the ' flannel ' in his 
brogue. 



134 Trials of a Deserter. 



(( ( 






Well, can you say peas ? ' continued the 
officer. 

" ' Pase, sir/ answered Pat and he was duly 
transferred to the English ship." 

On the advice of his former shipmates, Leech 
assumed the name of William Harper from Pine 
Street, Philadelphia ; and, going aboard the cor- 
vet, was duly paraded before the officers for " in- 
spection." One of them said : 

" Well, my boy, what is your name ? " 

" William Harper, sir," confidently responded 
the lad. 

What part of America do you belong to? " 
Philadelphia, sir." Here one of the officers 
smiled and remarked : " Ah, a fellow townsman. 
What street in Philadelphia? " 

" Pine street, sir," replied Samuel with the ex- 
pression of one who was being drawn into a net. 

" What street joins Pine street, my lad ? " con- 
tinued his tormenter with a knowing laugh. 

" I don't remember, sir," said Leech with fast 
ebbing confidence. 

" Ah, you don't remember, do you ? Quite pos- 
sibly," said the mischief-loving officer, for he 
knew pretty well all about Samuel's antecedents. 
" But, at least, you can tell us in what state 
Philadelphia is situated ? " 

This was a poser for the poor lad and, thinking 



A Tell-talk Button. 135 

to ^et ofT with the honors of war he gaspingly 
repHecl (not really knowing what he was saying) : 

" Gentlemen, it is so long since I have been 
in Philadelphia that — that — I — I — I — really for- 
get what state the city is in unless it is in the 
state of rest." 

This answer seemed to please some of the 
officers immensely, for they burst out laughing: 
but the one questioning Leech (he who claimed 
to be " a fellow townsman ") appeared vexed, for 
he pointed to one of Leech's English buttons, 
which had (unknown to him) relieved itself of 
its cloth covering, and said : 

" Where did you get that English button ? Did 
you pick it up in Philadelphia ? " 

This was a shot that raked Samuel fore and aft. 
He hauled down his colors and remained silent. 
The officers laughed heartily and one of them 
said: 

" Go below, my lad ; you will make a pretty 
good Yankee." 

The next morning Leech was taken ashore to 
sign the shipping papers but, with that strong 
commonsense, characteristic of him, he argued to 
himself that there were too many men from the 
Macedonian already aboard the John Adams and, 
if she were captured there would be small chance 
of escaping discovery and a noose at the yard- 
arm would be his reward. 



136 Trials of a Deserter. 

So he did not enlist in her. This decision was 
backed by his knowledge that strict orders had 
been issued from the Admiralty to keep a sharp 
watch for men who had been captured by Ameri- 
can war ships. While Samuel's reasoning was 
correct in theory, the fact was that the John 
Adams was not captured by the enemy. 

After two weeks of idleness and, finding that 
his stock of money accumulated aboard the 
Macedonian was fast ebbing away, Leech ac- 
cepted the offer of an Englishman by the name of 
Smith (who was a deserter from the British army 
but was then employed as a bootmaker in the 
firm of Benton & Co., in Broadway) to become 
an apprentice in the " art, science, secrets and 
mysteries of a cordwainer.*' 

" Behold me, then," records our hero, " trans- 
formed from the character of a runaway British 
sailor into that of a quiet scholar, at the feet of 
St. Crispin ; where, in the matter of awls, wax- 
ends, lapstones and pegs, I soon became quite 
proficient." 

It is altogether likely that our hero would have 
passed the remainder of his days in the " art " 
of shoemaking had it not been for a rumor that 
reached him one day, after he had been about two 
months in his new service, that a tall, stout sailor 
named George Turner was in the crew of the 




AX A.MKKICAX MAX-O'-WAKSMAN IN 1812. 
Drazi'ti from a contci)'.f>on:iicous shrtcli. 



Looking ur a Relativk. 137 

United States. Dctcrniincd to invcstij^atc, Sam- 
uel, one fine Sunday morninc;- went a1)oarcl that 
fri<:]^ate and was heartily received hy some of his 
former shipmates of the Macedonian who had 
entered the American service. 

Leech soon presented himself to his cousin and. 
after remindinci^ him of several incidents con- 
nected with their relatives and home at Wanstead, 
established his identity before that worthy tar. 
Turner advised the youth to give up the sea and, 
very kindly, oflfered him a home in Salem where 
he had a wife and family. 

Severing his connection with his kind em- 
ployer in the cordwainer shop, Leech engaged 
steerage passage in a sloop bound for Providence, 
for five dollars. Before that vessel sailed, Sam- 
uel found that his clothes bag had been robbed by 
a negro and the master of the craft, to save the 
good name of his packet, returned to Leech two 
dollars of the passage money as compensation. 
From Providence he proceeded to Boston in a 
coach chartered for the exclusive use of a party 
of merry sailors. 

On his arrival in Salem, Samuel was warmly 
welcomed by Mrs. Turner who, being very super- 
stitious, declared that she knew of his coming 
because of some peculiar antics of tea leaves in 
her cup that morning. 



138 Trials of a Deserter. 

A few weeks afterward the good woman 
aroused Samuel early one morning and hurried 
him off to the post office because she had dreamed 
of " catching fish." Surely enough, our hero 
soon returned with a letter containing a hundred 
dollar bill from her husband. 

Having no steady employment, young Leech 
spent most of his time around the wharves and 
shipping where he saw a number of privateers. 
He also went on a number of fishing trips in 
schooners. On one of these occasions, Leech and 
his party came near being captured by an English 
war ship. The party had been out all night and 
toward morning, being tired out, nearly every one 
aboard went to sleep. 

Luckily, one of the party, Lewis Deal, who had 
once been a quartermaster aboard the United 
States, kept a weather eye open ; for he knew 
that the coast was alive with British cruisers. 
Just at dawn, the report of a cannon close by, 
startled every one from his slumber and Deal 
exclaimed : 

" There ! I told you to look out for Johnny 
Bull ! " 

Looking about, .they saw an English gun- 
brig in full chase of a Boston sloop, within easy 
gunshot of them. Hastily weighing anchor, the 
fishing party made sail and soon reached port in 



A Narrow Escape. 139 

safety — the p^un-brii;' bcinp^ so intent on licr chase 
that she failed to discover the excursionists in the 
uncertain H^ht of dawn. For a moment, liow- 
ever, Samuel has painful visions of swinpi^in^i^ at a 
yard-arm which did not leave him until the brig^ 
was fairly out of gunshot. 

In the summer of 1813 young Leech deter- 
mined to enter the American navy and, as the 
Constitution, Frolic and Siren were at that time 
in Boston, shipping crews, he had the choice of 
those vessels. His preference was for Old Iron- 
sides but, as his cousin Turner had once sailed 
under the commander of the Siren, George 
Parker, and highly commended that officer, Leech 
enlisted in that brig. 

The Siren, owing to the blockade was unable 
to get to sea for several months. A\\ this time 
her crew was exercised in various drills. Samuel 
records : " My first impressions of the American 
service were very favorable. The captain and 
officers were kind, while there was a total exemp- 
tion from that petty tyranny exercised by the up- 
start midshipmen in the British service. Our 
men were as happy as men ever were in a man- 
of-war. 

" We were all supplied with stout leather caps, 
something like those used by firemen. These 
were crossed by two strips of iron, covered with 
10 



140 Trials of a Deserter. 

bear skin and were designed to defend the head, 
in boarding an enemy's ship, from cutlass strokes. 
Strips of bear skin were used to fasten them on 
and, having the fur on, served the purpose of 
false whiskers and causing us to look as fierce as 
hungry wolves." 



CHAPTER XIII. 
SIREN'S LIVELY CRUISE. 

Early in June, 1814, the Sirc}i was ready for 
sea and, getting under weigh in company with 
the famous privateer Grand Turk, stood down 
the harbor bound for a cruise on the west coast 
of Africa. In passing the fort, the Siren received 
the usual hail : 

" Brig, ahoy ! Where are you bound to? " 

To this First Lieutenant John B. Nicholson 
(whom Samuel had met in the United States 
after her action with the Macedonian) jocosely 
replied : 

" There and back again, on a man-of-war's 
cruise! " 

" Such a reply," said Leech, " would not have 
satisfied a British sentry but we shot past the fort 
unmolested " ; the officers of the fort probably 
knowing, full well, the characters of the passing 
ships. 

When two days out the Grand Turk parted 
company, not to be seen again until on the other 
side of the Atlantic — and then, under peculiar 
circumstances, as will soon appear. 



142 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

Keeping a sharp lookout the Siren touched at 
the Canary Islands and then made for the coast 
of Africa where Captain Parker died. A service 
was read over his body and it was committed to 
the deep. Scarcely had the brig got under sail 
again when, to the horror of all, the coMn was 
seen to he floating in the wake of the ship. 
" The reason for this," said Leech, " was that the 
carpenter bored holes in the top and bottom, 
when he should have made them in the top only." 

Such a grewsome accident would have deterred 
a more superstitious crew from continuing on the 
voyage but Captain Nicholson called all hands 
together and frankly laid the situation before 
them ; offering the choice of returning home or of 
continuing the cruise. With three hearty cheers 
the men expressed their unanimous desire to con- 
tinue and the Siren held a course accordingly. 

Leech spoke in the highest terms of Nicholson, 
saying : " He was a noble-minded man, very kind 
and civil to his crew. Seeing me one day with 
rather a poor hat on, he called me aft and pre- 
sented me with one of his own." 

One morning the welcome cry " Sail ho ! " 
aroused every man in the brig and attention was 
attracted to a strange vessel which had hove-to, 
with her courses hauled up. At first it was 
thought that she might be a British man-of-war. 



On the African Coast. 143 

The Siren was cleared for action and the ertw 
sent to battle quarters but on nearer approacli the 
stranger was recoi^nized as their old friend, the 
privateer Grand Turk. Her commander (hd not 
seem to know tlie Siren for, after assuring him- 
self that she was a brig- of war, he crowded on 
all sail to escape. As Captain Nicholson did not 
care to chase, she was soon out of sight. 

Running close along the African coast, the 
Americans, one day, saw several fires burning on 
the hills which, on investigation, they learned was 
the native method of indicating that they desired 
trade with the passing ship. The Siren hove-to, 
the negroes put off in canoes and a quantity of 
oranges, limes, cocoanuts, tamarinds, plantains, 
yams and bananas were taken aboard as welcome 
additions to the ship's larder. The brig remained 
here several days in the vain hope of falling in 
with English traders. 

It was while here that Leech first, really, ap- 
preciated the great value of water. He records : 
" We began to experience the inconvenience of a 
hot climate. Our men were covered with blotches 
or boils. To make it worse, was the want of 
fresh water. We were placed on an allowance of 
two quarts a day for each man. This occasioned 
much suffering for, after mixing our Indian meal 
for pudding, our cassava [a root which, on being 



144 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

ground made tolerable bread] and our whiskey 
for grog, we had little left to assuage our burning 
thirst. 

" Some, in their distress, drank large quantities 
of sea water which only increased their thirst 
and made them sick. Others sought relief in 
chewing lead, tea leaves or anything that would 
create moisture. Never did we feel more de- 
lighted than when our boat's crew announced the 
discovery of a pool of fine, clear water near the 
shore. We could have joined in the most enthu- 
siastic cold-water song ever sung." 

One night, while cruising along the coast, a 
large ship was discovered at anchor near the 
shore. Owing to the darkness it could not be 
determined whether she was a merchantman or 
a man-of-war, so the utmost caution was exer- 
cised in approaching her. It was not long before 
all doubt as to her character was dispelled for, 
suddenly, she set sail and made chase after the 
Siren. 

By the aid of powerful night glasses Captain 
Nicholson saw that she was a British frigate — 
and " meant business." The Siren was cleared 
for action, the cannon loaded, matches lit and the 
men laid down by their guns, fully expecting to 
be prisoners of war before morning; for the 
wind was in a direction favorable for the frigate 
outcarrying the brig. 



A SiiRKwn Yankkic Trick. 145 

Ag^ain visions of s\viii,G:inj:^ at a yard-arm passer! 
unpleasantly through the mind of our youthful 
hero for, to all appearances, it was only a ques- 
tion of a few hours when the steadily pi'aining 
pursuer would have the brig under her guns. 

But Leech had not counted on the resourceful- 
ness of Yankee commanders. When Nicholson 
realized that his powerful foe was rapidly gain- 
ing on him, he resorted to one of those tricks so 
successfully practiced by our privateersmen in 
that war. 

He had purposely kept a light in full view of 
the frigate, as if bent on a suicidal desire to be 
captured. When his pursuer was nearly within 
gunshot, however, he rigged out a hogshead, 
which was sealed up and so weighted that it 
would float in an upright position ; and on top of 
it he affixed a light, similar to the one he had 
been carrying. Dropping the hogshead carefully 
overboard with its decoy signal in full view, he 
" doused " the Siren s light. Then, changing his 
course, he made off in another direction leaving 
the frigate in her furious pursuit of the hogshead 
and its deceptive light. By daybreak the frigate 
was nowhere to be seen. Without doubt she 
" captured " the hogshead and her commander 
probably indulged in a prolonged soliloquy over 
the " singular ingenuity of these Yankees — as 
respects seamanship." 



146 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

The next adventure the Siren had was equally 
sharp. Discovering, one night, an English mer- 
chantman at anchor in Senegal river, Captain 
Nicholson ran down to her and hailed. Receiving 
an insolent reply, he gave the order to fire — but 
instantly countermanded it. But it was too late. 
The guns had been loaded and carefully trained. 
The men, with burning matches, stood ready at 
the first order and before the countermand came 
they had discharged the broadside. 

The swift current of the river carried the 
Siren past the merchantman, down the river. She 
attempted to beat up again but the unfortunate 
broadside had aroused the garrison of the fort, 
which commanded the river, and soon a rattling 
hail of " large size " cannon balls began to pass 
unpleasantly close to the heads of the Yankee 
crew. As it was useless to attempt the capture 
under such circumstances, Captain Nicholson 
dropped down the river, beyond the reach of the 
fort, to await daylight. 

Next morning the merchantman was seen 
snugly moored under the guns of the fort and, 
as she was filled with soldiers and had the pro- 
tection of the fort, it was clear that a stubborn 
resistance would be made. At first the Ameri- 
cans contemplated making a boat attack upon her, 
under cover of night. The Siren's crew begged 



(( 



Battle of Senegal." 147 



Captain Nicholson for permission but, after care- 
fully considering- the great risks he, very prop- 
erly, decided to give it over. 

Several men in the merchantman were, un- 
doubtedly, killed or wounded and had it not been 
for the hasty broadside, she might have been 
captured by boarding and carried beyond the 
reach of the fort without the garrison knowing 
anything about it until morning. The Siren's 
crew humorously dubbed this affair " The Battle 
of Senegal." 

After visiting Cape Three Points, Captain 
Nicholson shaped his course for St. Thomas ; and 
it was on this run that he met his match in Yankee 
nautical cunning. The English merchantman 
Jane of Liverpool, was discovered and in the 
hope of decoying her under his guns Captain 
Nicholson displayed English colors — it not yet 
being known to the Americans what the na- 
tionality of the stranger was. The Jane promptly 
responded with the Stars and Stripes and, in 
return, the Siren showed American colors. 

This was all the British master wanted to know 
and, making all sail, he shaped his course for 
St. Thomas which was a neutral port. The Siren 
crowded on every stitch of canvas that would 
hold the wind but the Jane proved to be the 
better sailer of the two and gained the harbor in 



1 



148 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

safety. In the hope of catching this and another 
English merchantman that was in the port, the 
Siren hovered in the vicinity several days and 
was rewarded by a rich prize. 

In a few days a sail was discovered making 
for St. Thomas. Hoisting English colors and 
dressing his officers in British uniforms (placing 
them in conspicuous places so that they could be 
readily seen by the approaching ship) Captain 
Nicholson — doubtlessly piqued by the trick the 
other Britisher had played on him and determined 
to show that Yankee ingenuity had not fallen 
below par — leisurely brought his brig within hail- 
ing distance of the Englishman when he called 
out: 

" Ship, ahoy ! " 

" Hello ! " was the reply. 

"What ship is that?" asked the American. 

" The ship Barton/' 

" Where do you belong? " 

" To Liverpool." 

" What is your cargo? " 

" Redwood, palm oil and ivory." 

" Where are you bound to ? " 

" To St. Thomas." 

At this moment the English flag on the Siren 
was hauled down and in its place was run up the 
Stars and Stripes and, to the inexpressible annoy- 



A Surprised Captain. 149 

ance of the Enc^lisliiiian, Captain Nicholson 
hailed : 

" Haul down your colors ! " 

Young Leech records: "The old captain [of 
the prize] who, up to this time had heen enjoying 
a nap in his very comfortahle cabin, now came on 
deck in his shirt sleeves, rubbing his eyes and 
looking so exquisitely ridiculous, it was scarcely 
possible to avoid laughing. So surprised was he, 
at the unexpected termination of his dreams, that 
he could not command skill enough to strike his 
colors ; which was, accordingly, done by his mate. 
As they had two or three guns aboard, and as 
some of the men looked as if they would like to 
fight, our captain told us, if they fired, not to 
leave enough of her ' to boil a tin pot with.' 
After this expressive threat, we lowered a boat 
and took possession of our prize." 

After taking out what goods they wanted, the 
Americans set fire to her. As the flames got fully 
under headway that night the burning ship pre- 
sented an impressive sight which Leech has 
described as follows : " It was an imposing sight 
to behold the antics of the flames leaping from 
rope to rope and from spar to spar until she looked 
like a fire-cloud resting on the dark surface of the 
water. 

" Presently her spars began to fall, her masts 



150 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

went by the board, her loaded guns went off, 
shaking up a shower of sparks which were car- 
ried high up in the heaven by the hot current of 
air, until they flickered out of sight. The hull 
was burned to the water's edge and, what was a 
few hours before a fine, trim ship, looking like a 
living creature of the deep, lay a shapeless 
charred mass, whose blackened outlines shadowed 
in the clear, still waves, seemed like the grim 
spirit of war seeking its prey." 

The men in the Barton were taken to St. 
Thomas where they were transferred to the 
aforementioned Jane. Sailing again on a new 
venture, the Siren captured the Enghsh brig 
Adventure, laden with " monkeys, an African 
prince " — and other things. The monkeys were 
destroyed with the brig but the African who, by 
the way, had received a tolerably fair education in 
England and was strikingly polite and pleasant in 
his ways, shipped aboard the Siren. He gave his 
name as Samuel Quaqua. 

Again returning to St. Thomas to rid herself 
of prisoners, the Siren remained in that port 
several days. The Americans improved this op- 
portunity to make purchases, receiving all kinds 
of fruit, birds and gold dust for articles of cloth- 
ing, knives, tobacco etc. For an old vest our 
hero bought a basket of oranges and for a hand- 



Taming a Prtty Officf.r. 151 

fill of tobacco five larq^c cocnanuts. This was a 
most valuable transaction for ibc lad inasmuch as, 
though he drew his daily allowance of tobacco, he 
had not acquired the habit of using it. The milk 
of the cocoanuts was hiq-hly appreciated when the 
Siren ap^ain ran short of water. 

It was while the Siren was in St. Thomas, that 
Samuel had the first and only real occasion to 
complain of the tyranny of the petty officers in 
the American navy — and the style in wdiich it was 
handled by Captain Nicholson is sufficient com- 
mentary of the humanity of our service in those 
davs. 

The petty officers messed by themselves and 
had a large, awkward boy, entirely unaccustomed 
to sea life, to wait on them. This led to some 
of the officers imposing upon him, even to the 
extent of knocking him around and using a rope's 
end on his back. For some reason Leech was 
ordered to take this boy's place and he, from the 
start, determined to resent this treatment. 

One day the gunner came below for his share 
of whiskey and found it gone, his messmates hav- 
ing drank it all. He turned upon Samuel and 
asked for the whiskey. The lad boldly answered : 

'' I know nothing about it," upon which the 
gunner broke into a violent rage using the most 
improper language. 



152 Siren's Lively Cruise. 

Leech at once went on deck and reported the 
matter to Captain Nicholson. The gunner was 
summoned and was warned that if he ever re- 
peated the offense he would be punished. Leech 
had no further difficulty on that score. 

Soon after this our hero had the satisfaction of 
playing a practical joke on this same gunner. 
Putting to sea the Siren, as usual, ran short of 
water (on account of the supply becoming foul) ; 
but the gunner, being " an old bird," had provided 
against such a contingency by having a keg of it 
securely locked in a room for his private use. 

One hot night, when the throats of all were 
parched with thirst, Samuel met the boatswain's 
mate and said : 

" If T were minded to play the rogue I could 
hook some water." 

"Where?" eagerly asked the mate, who was 
almost dying with thirst. 

" I have a key that will fit the lock of the room 
where the gunner keeps his water keg." 

" Well," said he, " give me the key and I will 
be the rogue while you keep watch for the old 



sinner." 



After drinking all they wanted of the delicious 
liquid, they locked the door and returned to their 
posts. The following day the gunner began 
throwing out hints, broadcast, about " sneak " 



Playing tiik Roguk. 153 

thieving-, what an unpardonahlc crime it was 
aboard a war ship and how he would just hkc to 
catch anyone doing such a thing aboard the Siren. 
Of course, no one had the sHghtest idea what he 
was raving about (excepting Samuel and the 
mate), the rest of the crew innocently supposing 
the want of water was driving the poor man out 
of his senses. 

When Samuel and the mate next attempted to 
visit the keg, they found a new and stronger lock 
on the door. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
PRISONERS OF WAR. 

Leaving St. Thomas, the Siren proceeded to 
Angola where she remained long enough to un- 
dergo a thorough overhauling and, after being 
cleaned and painted, she sailed for Boston — 
hoping to pick up a prize or two on the run 
across the Atlantic. So afraid was our hero of 
being retaken by the British that while at this 
place, he seriously considered the plan of desert- 
ing and finding refuge among the Africans. 
Better judgment prevailed, however, and he 
sailed with his ship. 

Still, he employed every device to prevent 
recognition in case of capture. He allowed his 
hair to grow long but instead of tying it in a 
queue behind (a fashion then commonly affected 
by seamen) he trained it so it fell in ringlets 
about his face. This, together with several 
years growth, he hoped would prevent any of 
his former associates from recognizing him 
should he ever be paraded before them. He also 
adopted the peculiar dress affected by American 
seamen which was to open his shirt at the neck 



A Suspicious Strangkr. 155 

witli the corners thrown back ; on these corners 
being embroidered the stars of the American 
flag", with the r)ritish colors below. 

Sailinq- from Angola, the Siren reached the 
island of Ascension in safety where she stopped 
long- enough to examine the " post office." This 
was a box nailed to a tree near the shore where 
passing- ships left letters and messages for other 
vessels to receive or carry to such different parts 
of the world as the directions called for. 

Scarcely had the brig left this island when on 
July 12, 1814, the cry: "Sail ho!" arrested the 
attention of all on board. In a short time a 
large ship, which was taken for a merchantman, 
rose above the horizon but Captain Nicholson 
exercised great caution in his approach. He had 
no relish for placing himself in the dilemma of 
the bold Yankee privateersman who unhesitat- 
ingly ran under the guns of a 74.-gun ship, be- 
lieving that she was an Indiaman. He was not 
undeceived until he had called on her to sur- 
render and the supposed Indiaman had run out a 
double row^ of huge guns. 

" Oh ! very well, then," smartly said the pri- 
vateersman, " if vou won't haul down your colors, 
I will." 

It was to avoid such a mistake as this that 
Captain Nicholson approached the stranger with 
II 



156 Prisoners of War. 

caution. It was soon discovered that she was 
under all sail making- for the brig and, shortly 
afterward, it was seen that she was a 74-gun ship 
under English colors ; upon which the Siren was 
promptly put about under all canvas to escape. 
Unfortunately the enemy had a wind most fav- 
orable for her and, as it was too evident that she 
was rapidly gaining, the Americans began to 
throw overboard their anchors, cables, hatches 
and, finally, their guns and ammunition in order 
to increase their speed. But the freshening 
breeze gave the huge seventy-four too much ad- 
vantage and she was soon outcarrying the little 
brig and came lumbering down on her like an 
elephant after a spaniel. 

Observing that his pursuer was almost within 
gunshot. Captain Nicholson ordered Quarter- 
master George Watson to throw the private sig- 
nals overboard. " This," said Samuel, " was a 
hard task for the noble-hearted fellow. As he 
pitched them into .the sea he said : ' Goodby, 
brother Yankee ' ; an expression which, in spite 
of the mortifying situation, forced a smile from 
the officers." 

The report of a heavy gun now came booming 
through the air as a signal for the brig to heave- 
to or look out for the consequences. It was well 
that the Siren obeyed as promptly as she did for 




Mi'n\\'.\v cirAsixG the sirf.x. 



Captured. 157 

they afterward learned that a division of the 
seventy-four's p^iin crews had strict orders to sink 
her if she made tlie least show of resistance. 
Heaving-to, Captain Nicholson caused the colors 
to be struck and waited while the enemy " came 
rolling down on us like a huge avalanche rushing 
down the mountain side to crush some poor 
peasant's dwelling." 

Surrounded by his officers on tlie cjuarter deck, 
the British commander hailed : 
What brig is that?" 

The United States brig Siren/' replied Cap- 
tain Nicholson. 

"This is His Britannic Majesty's ship Med- 
wayf' he answered. " I claim you as my lawful 
prize." 

Boats were now lowered and in a short time 
the Americans were transferred to the seventy- 
four ; the officers being comfortably quartered 
with the British officers but the sailors were 
stowed away in the poky cable tier where they 
were formed in messes of twelve, each mess hav- 
ing an allowance for only eight men. This harsh 
treatment, in a short time, caused considerable 
suffering from hunger. 

To Samuel, however, this was a small matter 
compared with his anxiety about the discovery of 



n 
(( 



158 Prisoners of War. 

his real character. When first going aboard the 
seventy-four " the sight of the marines," he said, 
" made me tremble for my fancy pointed out 
several of them as having formerly belonged to 
the Macedonian. I really feared I was destined 
to speedily swing at the yard-arm." 

On the day after the capture, all the prisoners 
were marched to the quarter deck of the Medway 
with their clothes bags to undergo a strict search ; 
for the English knew that the Siren had just 
come from the African coast and it was believed 
that many of her crew had gold dust with them. 
A most thorough examination was made, the men 
being required to remove their outer garments 
so as to facilitate the search. What little gold the 
Americans had, was taken from them without 
ceremony and appropriated by the officers of the 
ship. 

Arriving at Simon's Bay, the prisoners were 
landed and were compelled to make the remainder 
of their journey to Cape Town, twenty-one miles 
distant, on foot. Leech recorded : " We were 
received at the beach by a file of Irish soldiers. 
Under their escort we proceeded seven miles, 
through heaps of burning sand, seeing nothing 
worthy of interest but a number of men engaged 
in cutting up dead whales on the seashore. 



An Exhausting March. 159 

" After rcstinc^ a short time, wc recommenced 
oiir march, g^uardccl by a new detachment of sol- 
diers. Unused to walkin*:;-, as we were, wc bc^^n 
to grow excessively fatii^iicd and, after wacUng 
a stream of considerable dcplli, we were so 
overcome that it seemed impossible to proceed 
any further. We dropped down on the sand, dis- 
couraged and wretched. The guard brought us 
some bread and gave half a pint of wine to each 
man. This revived us somewhat. 

*' We were now placed under the guard of 
dragoons. They were very kind and urged us to 
attempt the remaining seven miles. To relieve 
us, they carried our clothes bags on their horses 
and, overtaking some Dutch farmers going to 
the Cape with broom-stuff and brush, the officer 
of the dragoons made them carry the most weary 
among us in their wagons. It is not conmion for 
men to desire the inside of a prison but we 
heartily wished ourselves there. At last, about 
nine o'clock that night, we reached Cape Town, 
having left one of our number at Wineburg 
through exhaustion, who rejoined us the next 
day. Stiff*, sore and weary we threw ourselves 
on the hard boards of our prison where we slept 
soundly until late the next morning." 

Wlien Saniucl awoke the following day he 



i6o Prisoners of War. 

found himself in a prison that had recently been 
occupied by several hundred American and 
French sailors. It consisted of a large yard, 
surrounded by high walls, strongly guarded by 
soldiers. Within this inclosure was a shed di- 
vided into three rooms ; none of which had a 
floor, saving that afforded by Mother Earth. 
Around the sides of the shed were three rows of 
benches, one above the other and, by spreading 
their clothing on them, tolerably comfortable 
bunks for sleeping were formed. A few of the 
Siren's men, however, preferred to swing their 
hammocks ; so accustomed had they become to 
that snug style of resting. 

Most of the petty officers and soldiers were 
very kind to the Americans but, at first, several 
of them showed a disposition to be tyrannical. 
They were quickly cured of this by an ingenious 
Yankee device. Whenever one of these surly 
petty officers was on duty, the Americans bothered 
him by hiding so as to delay him in the morning 
and evening " round-up " of the prisoners. This 
protracted his time of duty when he was most 
anxious to be relieved. 

Of course, the relief would not permit the 
former guard to go, until every prisoner had been 
accounted for. When several were missing, 



That Dutchman I5adh:m. i6i 

others were sent to find llicin and (ln'v, in turn, 
would hide and, so did the third hatch of mes- 
sengers. This vexatious delay sometimes kept 
the obnoxious tyrant an hour lont^er on duty. As 
these provokinc: delays occurred only when the 
objectionable officer was concerned, he soon came 
to understand it — and mended his ways accord- 
ingly. 

Having triumphed over this annoyance, the 
Sirens next turned their attention to an old 
Dutchman named Badiem, who had the contract 
for supplying provisions for the prisoners. He 
had already found that it was dangerous to at- 
tempt cheating Yankees by supplying cheaper 
and poorer bread and so he was now more cau- 
tious. 

It was not long before the Sirens found that a 
very inferior quality of bread was being furnished 
and, taking counsel among themselves, they de- 
cided to •' fix " Badiem. According to British 
prison regulations, a superior officer was required 
to visit the prisoners every day and see to it that 
they were properly treated. This officer hap- 
pened to be a kind old gentleman who had seen 
service in our war for independence and had 
been in the Battle of Bunker Hill — consequently 
he entertained the highest respect for Yankees. 



i62 Prisoners of War. 

" He had the profoundest respect for American 
character," said Leech, " and could not speak of 
the Battle of Bunker Hill without tears." 

One day a friendly sergeant being on duty, the 
prisoners gave him a piece of the Dutchman's 
bread, complaining that it was not fit to eat. At 
the usual time the gallant old general, mounted 
on a fine, dashing charger, came round and asked 
the usual question: 

Everything all right ? " 

No, sir," replied the sergeant. 

What is the matter ? " asked the veteran. 

The prisoners complain of their bread, sir." 

Let me see it," commanded the general. 
The sergeant gave him the piece. The general 
wrapped it carefully in a piece of paper, clapped 
spurs to his horse and galloped of¥. On the fol- 
lowing day the prisoners had better bread than 
ever before and an order came for a man from 
each of the three rooms to go with the sentry 
every morning to Cape Town to examine their 
daily provisions — and if it proved not what it 
ought to be, to reject it at old Badiem's expense. 
This upheaval of the Dutchman's dreams of ill- 
gotten profit, put him into the wildest rage but, 
so long as the Sirens were in that prison he never 
dared to again foist poor fare on them. Old 



(I 

a 
{( 
(( 
(I 



Xmas in South Africa. 163 

Badiem declared that he would rather feed one 
thousand Frenchmen than one hundred Yankees. 

Leech records : " We now had an abundance 
of beef and mutton and a full allowance of bread. 
The mutton was excellent. Besides our prison 
allowance, we had an opportunity to purchase as 
many little luxuries as our slender finances would 
permit. These were furnished by a slave who 
was the property of the old Dutchman and who 
was so far a favorite as to be indulged in two 
wives and the privilege of selling small articles 
to the inmates of the prison." 

For reasonable charges this sable polygamist 
provided coffee, tea, fish, sausages and fruit so 
that on Christmas Day the Sirens had some 
semblance of a jollification. In order to procure 
money for these luxuries, the prisoners were per- 
mitted to braid hats, make toy boats and such 
fancy articles as would sell in the town. 

One day, Samuel became quite ill in the prison 
and his shipmates advised him to go to the hos- 
pital in Cape Town. It seems that he had been 
taken in a similar way when aboard the Siroi 
and the surgeon had prescribed an ounce of salts 
that caused him the most horrible nausea. So, 
when the hospital was now suggested, Samuel 
at once associated it with those dreaded salts. 



164 Prisoners of War. 

" I would go to the hospital," he said, " if I 
thought they would not give me salts." 

His shipmates assured him that he would not 
receive such a remedy so, under the guard of a 
sentry, he sallied forth from the prison to the 
hospital. 

" Well, my boy," cheerily asked the Doctor, 
" W^hat is the matter with you ? " 

With many wry faces Samuel explained his 
symptoms, whereupon, the docter promptly 
turned to his assistant and said : 

" Doctor Jack, six ounces of salts for this f 

boy ! " j 

Poor Samuel felt like jumping out of the win- 
dow and he would have done so had he not 
known that a bullet would have overtaken him. 
An ounce of salts in the Siren had caused him 
excruciating agony — ^^and now he was compelled 
to swallow six! 

But there was no way of evading the dose. He 
took it and, much to his relief and surprise, found 
that they were an entirely different and much 
milder dose from that he had taken aboard the 
brig; the former being Epsom and the latter 
Glauber's salts. 

So pleased was our hero with his trip to Cape 
Town and the opportunity to stroll about the 



Feigning Illness Cured. 165 

streets that, soon afterward, lie feigned illness. 
He repeated this once too often, however. The 
Doctor seeing through the trick, gave him a dose 
of medicine which cured Samuel of any further 
desire to visit the hospital. 



CHAPTER XV. 
UNDER THE HALTER'S SHADOW. 

There was a small prison at Cape Town called 
The Trunk, so dubbed on account of its scanty 
dimensions. To this place all the prisoners, 
where the Siren's crew was confined, were trans- 
ferred when they became too refractory. Here 
they were kept on bread and water for such time 
as their " judge " deemed necessary. And it must 
be said that the Americans never complained 
when any of their number was thus punished — 
provided he was guilty. 

One day, however, two of the Siren's crew 
were threatened with banishment to The Trunk 
most unjustly. It seems that two of the pris- 
oners had washed their clothes and unwittingly 
had hung them over a line directly in front of the 
path leading to the prison doctor's office. Ob- 
serving the clothing and being too proud to bend 
his head or go around the wet clothing, the doc- 
tor took out his knife and cut the line so the 
clothes fell in the dirt and were soiled. 

The owners of the " insulted shirts and trous- 
ers " angrily inquired who had cut the line and 



Mutiny! 167 

were told that it was the Kni^hsh doctor. This 
hronght forth a volley of sailcjr profanity that 
was not at all complimentary to the doctor who, 
overhearing" it, ordered the two men to The 
Trunk. 

The Sirens determined to resist and when the 
sergeant came to seize the men, all the Americans 
turned out in a body declaring that they would all 
go to The Trunk together. As the prisoners 
were in a state of mutiny, the guard was called 
out and ordered to load and fire. Upon this, the 
Americans shouted : 

" Fire away ! You will have but one fire and 
then it will be our turn ! " 

By this time all the broken bottles, stones and 
sticks in the yard had been picked up and the 
prisoners stood ready to open the battle. 

Realizing that he would be overpowered, the 
sergeant recalled his men and the Sirens never 
heard any more about it — at least not from the 
enemy's side. 

Such experiences aflforded a welcome relief to 
the dreary monotony of prison life at Cape Town 
for the Siren s people had now been in '* durance 
vile " seven months. Further excitement was 
caused soon after the *'' mutiny " by a midnight 
alarm. 
, One night, when all in the prison save the 



i68 Under the Halter's Shadow. 

guard were asleep, all hands were awakened by 
the approach of a large party of shouting and 
singing men and women, preceded by a band of 
music. The prisoners turned out in a jifify — 
hoping that they were about to be liberated by a 
daring raid from some American war ship. They 
rushed, in a body, to the prison gate ; ready to 
perform their part in the rescue — if rescue it was. 

Much to their chagrin — and afterward to their 
no small amusement — they learned that the cause 
of the commotion was a Dutch wedding party 
going to the house of old Badiem, the prison 
caterer, who lived nearby. The band of music, 
very inappropriately, was playing that familiar 
tune " A Free and Accepted Mason." 

When the news of the capture and burning of 
Washington reached this dreary prison, the Si- 
rens decided to make a break for liberty. A 
carefully laid plan to rise at night, overpower the 
guards and proceeding to Simon's Bay, cut out 
some ship and sail to America, was agreed to. 
But through treachery it reached the ears of the 
garrison, with the result that the guard was 
doubled while the arrival of a company of dra- 
goons rendered the project impossible of exe- 
cution. 

Shortly after this an English missionary, the 
Rev. George Thom, asked permission of the 



A Kind Ministration. 169 

prisoners to preach to tlicni on Sundays. Some 
of the sailors ol^jjccted on the p^round that he 
would laud the king hut the i)revailin.G: sentiment 
was " Let him come and show him that Ameri- 
cans know what good hehavior is." They re- 
called the experiences of the eccentric Rowland 
Hill, who, when attacked on a preaching tour, 
was saved by a few sailors rallying about him 
and dispersing the mob. 

Cleaning up one of the rooms and arranging 
benches, thev welcomed Mr. Thom and his ami- 
able wife on the following Sabbath : Instead of 
preaching about kings and princes, as some of the 
Americans feared, he gave them an earnest, simple 
discourse which so pleased the men that they 
invited him to come every Sunday. As some of 
the hardy seamen expressed it : " He shot away 
my colors," " He gave me a broadside " etc. 

During the week Mr. Thom would visit the 
prisoners, distributing healthful literature for 
them to read. The result of this little thoughtful- 
ness was most touching on these mariners. So 
little accustomed were they to any consideration 
or attention, they were readily led by the kindly 
ministrations of this good man and his wife. 
Gambling, profanity and other vices became un- 
popular and were finally discarded altogether. 

As some expression of their appreciation, the 



170 Under the Halter's Shadow. 

Sirens presented Mr. Thorn many gifts worked 
in a rough way by their hands — doubly precious 
to the good man on that account. One was the 
model of a full rigged ship, another was a hat 
made from bullocks' horns — the horn being 
pealed into narrow strips and woven together in 
shape for head gear. 

About the middle of March, 1814, the 74-gun 
ship of the line Cumberland arrived at Cape 
Town to transfer the prisoners to England, pre- 
paratory to their voyage to the United States. 
While this was joyful news to most of the 
Siren's people, it was full of seriousness for our 
hero. 

" The tidings filled me with fear," recorded 
Samuel. " Directly to America I would gladly 
have gone but to be carried to England, in one 
of her ships of war, was like going to certain 
death. How was it possible for me to escape 
detection? How could I avoid meeting some of 
the old Macedonians who would, of course, 
recognize and betray me ? 

" These questions tortured rne beyond endur- 
ance and almost induced me to volunteer to re- 
main at the Cape. I felt like an escaped criminal, 
with the officers of justice at his heels. Death at 
the yard-arm haunted me day and night. No one 
can imagine my uneasiness unless he has been 
similarly placed." 



In Dri:au uv Dktection. 171 



After the usual delays, the Sirens were stowed 
aboard the Cumberland in far more comfortable 
quarters than they had had in the Medwa\ for, 
instead of the stuffy cable tier, they had roomy 
bunks on the upper gun-deck ; besides which they 
had plenty of good food. 

Arriving at St. Helena, part of the prisoners 
were transferred to their captor, the Medzvay, 
and the rest to the 50-gun frigate Grampus; 
young Leech being sent to the latter. " This 
transfer to the Grampus greatly alarmed me," 
said Samuel, '' since the more men I saw the 
greater was the chance of detection. I had 
already escaped being known on board of two 
seventy-fours with their half thousand men each 
but I could not promise myself the same im- 
munity much longer. However, as I saw no face 
that was familiar when I went on board, I felt a 
little more at ease." 

That night, however, proved to be one long 
remembered by our hero as one in which he grew 
several years older in as many minutes. About 
nine o'clock, when every thing in the great frig- 
ate had settled down to the orderly quiet of the 
hour, a call from the officer of the deck was 
passed along the main deck which, in the stillness 
of the night, sounded as if it had come from a 
speaking trumpet. It was : 
12 



172 Under the Halter's Shadow. 

" Pass the word for the boy Leech ! " 

For a moment SamtieFs heart stopped beating 
and then began thumping like a trip hammer as, 
in agonizing fear, he awaited the outcome of 
this summons for " the boy Leech " — which was 
always the way he had been summoned when 
aboard the Macedonian. 

" Pass the word for the boy Leech ! " was re- 
peated by several gruff boatswain's mates and, as 
each order came nearer to the place where our 
hero was waiting, there seemed to be no doubt 
but that it was intended for him. Indeed, several 
of the American prisoners said to him : 

" That means you." 

Samuel was so terrified that he could make no 
motion, nor could he control his voice so as to 
answer. Perhaps it was fortunate for him that 
he remained silent for, a moment later, he heard 
some one say: 

" Your master wants you." 

This convinced Samuel that there was a " Boy 
Leech " in the frigate's crew as well as among 
the prisoners and so it proved — though our 
friend declared that he did not breathe freely 
again for a week afterward and that at night he 
suffered from the most hideous nightmares. 

When at St. Helena it was learned that war 
with France was ended. This was gratifying 




v. 
u: 



b. 



•f. ^ 



X > 



u: 



?: 



I 



Peace or War? 173 

news to the sailors as tlicy were all liopinpf to j^ct 
discharged. On the run from this island to Kiip^- 
land, however, it was learned from a passing 
ship that Napoleon had escaped from Elha and 
was at Paris with sixty thousand men so that the 
war was on again, " Nothing," said Samuel. 
" could exceed the joy of the officers at this an- 
nouncement and the corresponding vexation of 
the crew. The former dreaded peace because it 
meant half pay, no prize money, and little chance 
of promotion." 

At last the white clififs of Old England rose 
above the horizon. To avoid suspicion our hero 
pretended to be very much interested in every 
thing about the " new " land, asking such ques- 
tions as any foreigner might. ** I could not be- 
hold myself approaching my native land," 
records Samuel, " without many misgivings. To 
a man who knows a halter is hanging over his 
head, everything furnished cause for alarm ; a 
piercing look, a whisper or the sudden mention 
of my name caused me to tremble." 

One day, before they made port, Captain Nich- 
olson inadvertently came near disclosing Leech's 
secret before the officers of the Grampus. It 
seems some discussion had been going on be- 
tween the American and British officers when 
Nicholson sent for Samuel to clear up a point 



174 Under the Halter's Shadow. 

involving Salem ; from which place, the American 
officer all along had supposed the boy really came. 

Appearing before the officers in fear and tremb- 
ling he was asked a question about Mr. Crownin- 
shield of Salem. Fortunately, Leech knew of him 
and answered satisfactorily. It was with im- 
measurable relief that he found no other questions 
were to be asked for every moment Samuel 
feared that he would get into the same trouble 
he had relative to his " native city of Philama- 
delph." 

Nor was this an idle fear that Leech had, 
about being betrayed unintentionally by his 
friends. A case occurred only a short time be- 
fore, in the very port for which the Grampus 
was making, where a mother innocently revealed 
the identity of her son. Not knowing that he 
was a deserter from the royal navy, she went 
aboard a newly arrived English man-of-war and 
asked for him, giving his name and rating. They 
replied that no one of that name was aboard. 

" He is among the Yankees," unthinkingly re- 
marked the good mother. 

There happened to be some American prison- 
ers and, hearing the remark, an officer summoned 
up the prisoners and paraded them on the gun 
deck. Seeing her son among the number the 
poor woman exclaimed: 



An Unfortunate Cry. 175 

"Oil, Tom! I have brought you a clean 
shirt!" 

The officer, who was standing- by, then stepped 
up to the man and said : 

"It's a clean shirt you want, is it? I'll give 
you a clean handkerchief " — meaning that he 
would be hung. The unfortunate lad was at 
once placed in irons, in the presence of his 
mother. A courtmartial was held and on the 
following day he was hung at the yard-arm. It 
was fortunate for our hero that Captain Nichol- 
son did not question him too closely about Salem 
in the presence of the British officers. 

Arriving at Spithead the Americans were trans- 
ferred to the prison-ship Puissant, a war vessel 
which had been captured from the French. 
" Here we were treated with great leniency," 
records Samuel. " We were even allowed liberty 
to go ashore. Had I dared, I would have run 
away — but the dread of a halter restrained me. 
I did not even venture to write to my mother, 
lest she should be tempted to visit me, or even 
write, as a letter from any place in England 
might awaken suspicions as to my true character 
and she might share the grief of the too-fond 
mother who innocently sent her son to the gal- 
lows." 

After a stav of several weeks in the Puissant, 



176 Under the Halter's Shadow. 

the Sirens were transferred to the gun-brig Rover 
which was to transfer the prisoners to Plymouth, 
England. 

It seemed a part of the Admiralty's policy to 
transfer American prisoners from one British 
war ship to another as many times as possible — 
evidently with the object of increasing the chances 
of detecting deserters. So far, our hero had 
passed under the surveillance of the English in 
the Medway, in the prison at Cape Town and 
of the people in the Cumberland, Grampus, Puis- 
sant and Rover — numbering in all, several thou- 
sand British officers and sailors ; certainly an 
ordeal which nothing but Providence enabled 
him to pass through without detection. 

But a still severer ordeal was awaiting him. 
In his diary Leech records in reference to his 
induction on the Rover: " Here was a double 
risk again before me. I had a risk of being 
known by the crew of the Rover and by the many 
people who had known me at Plymouth during 
my previous stay at that port. However, the 
good hand of Providence was with me to pre- 
serve me. We reached our port in safety where, 
to our great delight, we heard that the Woodrop 
Simms, Captain Jones, of Philadelphia, was to be 
the cartel to convey us to America." 

Before the Americans were permitted to tread 



IncrilASing Perils. 177 

her decks, however, the prisoners (ap^ain follow- 
ing the policy of the Admiralty for detecting 
deserters) were sent aboard the Royal Sovereii^n 
where they would be exposed to the gaze of eight 
hundred men — a large bounty being offered to 
the man who would reveal the identity of British 
deserters. Unfortunately for Samuel, this Royal 
Sovereign, on a previous occasion, had sailed 
in company with the Macedonian and Leech was 
known to many of her people. 

To avoid recognition our hero resorted to a 
stratagem. He says : ** Whenever any of her 
men came near our quarters, I endeavored to 
look cross-eyed or closed one eye so as to appear 
partially blind ; and in various other ways altered 
my appearance so that even an old shipmate 
would have been puzzled to recognize me at first." 



CHAPTER XVI. 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 

At last the grateful news that the Woodrop 
Simms was ready, reached the prisoners and in 
August, 1815, Samuel went aboard her the hap- 
piest boy that ever breathed the breath of life. 
Here he met a number of other Sirens who — 
during their short stay at Plymouth — had been 
confined in Dartmoor Prison. 

It would be supposed that these men, after such 
a protracted incarceration in British prisons, 
would be without money. At least, so argued 
Samuel. What must have been his surprise, then, 
when he saw these same Dartmoor prisoners 
purchasing large quantities of luxuries for their 
voyage across the Atlantic — and they had the 
coin to pay for them, too. 

Later on, Samuel learned that this was counter- 
feit money which these prisoners had made dur- 
ing their involuntary stay at Dartmoor. How far 
this spurious money circulated before the authori- 
ties learned of it, Samuel does not state, neither 
did he care for on the following day, the Wood- 
rop Simms set sail for America. 



Removing Tiiii Mask. 179 

It was one nioriiin^ when tlie cartel was well 
on lier way across the Atlantic that the sccjuel to 
Captain Nicholson's near approach to a betrayal 
of Leech's identity before ]*)ritish officers in the 
Gra})ipi(s, came about. Nicholson ap^ain asked 
Samuel somcthini^ about Salem. Our hero j^ave 
a knowing" laugh. The American commander, 
somewhat indignant, asked : 

"Why this levity?" 

" Sir," replied the youth, ** Salem is not my 
native place by a considerable." 

** What do you mean?" inquired Nicholson, 
somewhat mvstified bv Samuel's manner. 

It was then that Leech, for the first time, told 
Nicholson how he had been captured in the 
Macedonian, had deserted and had shipped in an 
American war ship and had, all these months been 
under the shadow of a halter. Captain Nicholson 
warmly congratulated the lad on his many nar- 
row escapes. 

As showing the fickleness of the old-time sail- 
or's whims, the following extract from Samuel's 
diary will be given : " During the voyage a great 
deal was said about quitting the sea and settling 
down in quietness on shore. One of our ship- 
mates, named William Carpenter who belonged 
to Rhode Island, had a particular enthusiasm for 
farming. He promised to take me with him 



i8o Homeward Bound. 

where I could learn the art of cultivating the 
soil. Many of us made strong resolutions to 
embark in some such enterprise. The pleasures 
of agriculture were sung and praised among us 
in so ardent a manner that he must have been 
incredulous indeed who could have doubted for a 
moment the certainty of quite a number of our 
hands becoming farmers whenever we should 
gain land." 

One night as they swung in their hammocks, 
talking with great earnestness about their fav- 
orite theme (farming), the wind blowing quite 
freshly on deck, one said : 

" If ever I get home, you won't catch me on 
board of a ship again." 

" Yes," said another, " farmers live well at 
any rate. They are not put on an allowance but 
have enough to eat. If they work hard at it all 
day, they can turn in at night — and if it blows 
hard the house won't rock and there are no sails 
to reef." 

While these and other good resolutions were 
being formed, the wind began blowing harder 
and harder. From occasional puffs it quickly 
grew to a tremendous gale. Realizing that they 
were in for a storm and thinking that all hands 
might be required, those below went on deck to 
assist. It was now blowing a hurricane, the 



A Night of Tickror. i8i 

wind liowlinjT;- and whistlinp^ throiic^h tlic rippinj^, 
the wilder roar of the angry sea, the shoiitinp of 
the officers and the intense darkness all conspired 
to present a scene of indescrihable terror. 

Just as our hero stepped on deck, a heavy wave 
broke over the cartel, drenching all hands and 
threatening to carry her down. Shortly after- 
ward the crash of a falling mast was heard. It 
was a topmast going overboard, leaving a yard 
in the slings. There were so many men on deck 
now that they only encumbered each other's 
movements ; so some went below with the full 
expectation that the ship would founder before 
morning; and, with true sailor-like philosophy, 
they argued that it would be as well to drown in 
their hammocks as on deck. 

During this night of appalling danger the men 
manifested curiously varying symptoms of alarm. 
" Some prayed aloud," records Leech. " Others 
cursed as if in bravado shouting ' We are all 
going to perdition together ! ' For my own part 
I kept repeating the Lord's prayer and renewing 
those promises, so often made in moments of 
apparent destruction." 

At length day broke, revealing the sad havoc 
made by the storm. The shattered state of the 
cartel's masts and rigging reminded Samuel of 



1 82 Homeward Bound. 

the condition of the Macedonian after her action 
with the United States, excepting that there were 
no wounded or dead encumbering the deck. 
Captain Jones, who commanded the Woodrop 
Simms, declared that, though he had been at sea 
twenty-five years, he had never experienced such 
a frightful storm. He had not left the deck all 
that night. Fortunately for all hands, the ship 
was nearly new, exceptionally strong and an ex- 
cellent sea boat. 

As the gale abated, repairs were made and the 
cartel proceeded on her voyage, meeting a num- 
ber of vessels that had suffered even worse than 
she, while (as they afterward learned) many 
craft went down with all hands on board. That 
gale was on the 9th and loth of August, 181 5, 
and was long remembered among sailor folk as 
the worst in their experience. 

When so many resolutions about " turning into 
farmers " had, apparently, been " clinched " by 
this close swish against the winding sheet of 
Death, we would expect that the men making 
them would exert all effort to get into the rural 
districts as soon as possible after reaching port. 
Such, however, did not prove to be the case. 

Arriving in New York, safe and sound, they 
were paid ofiF and, in a twinkling, the hardships 



Resolutions Soon Forgot. 183 

and perils of the sea were forgotten as most of 
the sailors plunged headlong into dissipation 
which was continued so long as their money held 
out. As Sanniel well expressed it : ** We felt as 
if New York belonged to us and that we were 
really the happiest, jolliest fellows in the world." 

It is only in justice to our hero to say, however, 
that at first he made honest effort to find employ- 
ment on shore. He looked up the bootmaking 
establishment in Broadway, where he had begun 
an apprenticeship, and was truly disappointed on 
learning that his employer had moved to Phila- 
delphia. After this damper on his good reso- 
lutions our hero, we fear, did not make other 
serious attempts in this line. He had a hundred 
dollars in his pocket and was content to float 
about the city until that was gone when, like most 
of his companions in the cartel, he enlisted again. 

Samuel shipped in the United States war brig 
Boxer which had been captured by the Enter- 
prise, September, 181 3. The Boxer was now 
commanded by the celebrated David Porter who 
was captain of the Essex in her famous cruise 
in the south Pacific, 1812-1814. " Although Cap- 
tain Porter was stern and severe," said Samuel, 
" he never used bad language. He always spoke 
with the utmost deliberation but with such ob- 



184 Homeward Bound. 

vious feeling that we often trembled to hear his 



voice." 



While in the Boxer, Samuel learned a new 
" trick " in maintaining discipline which was far 
more effective and less brutal than flogging. As 
it was now in time of peace, night watches were 
prone to steal a doze while on duty. 

To check this habit, Captain Porter ordered 
that any man caught sleeping was to be aroused 
by a handspike — not too gently applied. The 
offender was then obliged to take the handspike 
and hold it in his hand as a badge of disgrace 
throughout the watch, unless he discovered an- 
other man asleep when he was to awake him in a 
similar manner and pass the handspike to him. 
By this simple means, the night watches were 
sufficiently " interested " to keep awake. 

After his service in the Boxer, Samuel, now 
fourteen years old, renewed his resolutions about 
seeking employment on shore and now, without 
funds, he set out in the dead of winter and pain- 
fully made his way — ragged, footsore and cold — 
to New Haven, Hartford, Coventry and Mans- 
field. At the last town he met an old shipmate 
in the Macedonian who had wandered into Con- 
necticut, married and was in fairly comfortable 
circumstances. Through his influence Samuel 
found steady work and attending a Methodist 



Joins the Church. 185 

revival, he became a staunch supporter of that 
faith the remainder of his days. 

Our hero describes how he was induced to 
attend the revival by some ** worldly younp men " 
who thought to have sport with him : " Some 
of the young men who spent their evenings with 
me listening to my sea yarns invited me to attend 
a meeting of the Methodist Church. lUit they 
greatly misjudged the character of seamen. I 
attended the meeting but not to make sport. One 
Sabbath evening my friend Ella Dunham asked : 

*' * When do you intend to set out and seek 
religion ? ' I replied, somewhat evasively : 

" ' Any time.' 

" ' Well ' said he, * are you willing we should 
pray for you and will you go forward for prayers 
to-night ? ' 

" To this I replied that I would think of it. 
The meeting proved to be intensely interesting. 
My desire to express the inward working of my 

mind grew strong I determined to rise 

and speak though the Evil One whispered * Not 
yet, not yet ' in my ears. 

" Just as I stood up, some one (not seeing me) 
began to sing but my friend Dunham checked the 
singing ' because a young man wished to speak.' 
He had seen my move. Thus encouraged I told 



1 86 Homeward Bound. 

them I was then nineteen years old and it seemed 
to me too much of Hf e to spend in sin, that eternity 
was a solemn idea and I desired them to tell me 
how to enter upon it with joy. They proposed to 
pray with me. We then all kneeled down to- 
gether. Most fervently did they pray for the 
divine blessing to rest on the stranger youth, 
bowed in penitence before them and most sin- 
cerely did I join my prayers with theirs before 
the throne of God." 

Samuel records that of all his shipmates who 
survived the naval battle of October 25, 1812, he 
knew of only one, besides himself, who embraced 
religion ; and his name — singularly enough — was 
John Whiskey. 

In all his wanderings Samuel had not forgotten 
his mother but, owing to his frequent changes of 
address, he did not get a letter from her until he 
had settled in Connecticut — some eight years after 
leaving Blenheim. How eagerly the good woman 
had followed the fortunes of her son is revealed 
in the opening words of this, her heart's message : 
" My dearly beloved Child. I cannot describe the 
sensations I felt when I received a letter from 
your dear hands. It was the greatest pleasure I 

have enjoyed since you left me I sent 

your letter to Lady Churchill, formerly Lady 



Fear of tin-: IIaitkr. 187 

Francis Spencer. P.oth Lord and Lady Churchill 
were glad to hear from you and are your well- 
wishers. The Duke and Duchess of Marlbor- 
ough are both dead Lord Francis makes a 

very good master." 

Much as Samuel desired to visit England and 
again see his beloved mother, he was deterred 
from so doing on account of his desertion from 
the British navy. This fear was enhanced by a 
conversation he liad with the traveler, Lorenzo 
Dow, who assured Samuel that he had recently 
seen four men hanged in England for just such 
an ofTense as our hero had committed. 

Samuel then endeavored to persuade his 
mother and his step-father to emigrate to America 
but, before his letter reached England, Mr. New- 
man died and Mrs. Newman felt that it would 
be unwise to migrate at her time of life. 

Soon afterward Samuel left his employer in 
Mansfield and, purchasing a horse and wagon, 
started into business for himself ; traveling from 
town to town, selling steelyards etc. Accumulat- 
ing a small capital in this way he opened a store 
in Mansfield. 

Like nearly all New England stores in those 
days the one opened by our hero had a corner 
where intoxicating liquor could be obtained. But 

13 



i88 Homeward Bound. 

soon afterward, hearing a temperance sermon by 
Dr. Hawses of Hartford, he gave up that lucrative 
branch of the business. He said : " I could hold 
out no longer, in spite of the example of our best 
citizens (some of whom often drank, though spar- 
ingly, at my house) I gave it up I have ever 

regarded that act as among the best of my life." 

In time, Samuel married a member of the 
Methodist church and went to Somers, Conn., 
from which place he soon moved and finally 
settled in Wilbraham, Mass. Here the years 
glided pleasantly and swiftly as our hero pros- 
pered in business and grew in the esteem of his 
fellow townsmen. 

A matter of business calling him to New York, 
Samuel learned that the Macedonian was in that 
port; and, with true sailor-like attachment for 
the " old ship," he visited her. He records : " I 
stood on the spot where I had fought in the din 
of battle and, with many a serious reflection, re- 
called the horrors of that dreadful scene. The 
sailors, on witnessing the care with which I 
examined everything, and supposing me to be a 
landman, eyed me rather closely. Seeing their 
curiosity, I said : 

'' ' Shipmates, I have seen this vessel before 
to-day ; probably before any of you did.' 



Familiar SciiNtis. iStj 

** The old tars j^athcrcd around inc, eajjfcrly 
listening to my tale of the battle and they l)orc 
patiently and with becoming gravity the exhor- 
tation to lead a religious life with which I closed 
my address." 



CHAPTER XVII. 
AGAIN AT BLENHEIM. 

As has already appeared in these pages, Mr. 
Leech — we must now be more careful in men- 
tioning him for, not only did he have a wife and 
three children but he had attained the proud 
distinction of being a sovereign American citizen 
— had long intended to make a visit to England to 
see his mother and the scenes of his boyhood 
again, but had been deterred from so doing by 
fear of death for desertion from the British navy. 

To remove this obstacle his mother, through 
the influence of Lady Churchill, secured the fol- 
lowing official protection for our hero: 

Lower Brook Street, Nov. 7, 182 1. 
Mrs. Newman: 

I consulted my brother William upon the subject on 
which you wish for advice, as neither Lord C. nor 
myself could undertake to answer your inquiry; and I 
am glad to hear from him the following explanation in 
reply : " There is nothing to prevent Mrs. Newman's 
son from coming home; for when the war was termi- 
nated, he was safe, even if he had entered the enemy's 



4 



A Man of Family. k^i 

service; but he will, of course, forfeit the pay and any 
prize money due him." 

I am, mucli yours, 

F. Churchill. 

While he was unmarried, a trip to Enc^land and 
back would have been an easy matter for our 
hero but now, that he was a man of family, the 
items of passage money and incidental expenses, 
assumed formidable proportions. It was this 
serious aspect of the undertaking that induced 
Mr. Leech to urge his mother to emigrate to 
America, where he promised her a warm welcome 
and a comfortable home. But the good woman 
was too deeply attached to British soil to be up- 
rooted in her old age and, between urging on one 
side and entreating on the other, the years flew 

by. 

At last Mr. Leech received a letter from his 
mother which decided him to tmdertake the voy- 
age; so, one pleasant morning early in June, 1841, 
the Leech family, formidably protected with 
baggage, set out from Wilbraham and, after a 
pleasant passage by way of Springfield and Hart- 
ford, arrived in New York where they took 
passage in the " splendid packet-ship George 
Washington/' bound for Liverpool. 

After a " quick run of twenty days," they 
arrived at Liverpool and it was here that our 



192 Again at Blenheim. 

hero's well engrafted Americanism began to 
assert itself. Having bestowed due praise on the 
magnificent docks, he had to contrast " the dark, 
dingy aspect of Liverpool, everywhere discolored 
by the fumes of coal-smoke, with the light, cheer- 
ful aspect of our American cities; and giving 
preference to the latter, notwithstanding my Eng- 
lish prejudices." 

After passing through the charming rural 
scenery between Liverpool and Stafford, and di- 
lating on the risk he ran of " being torn asunder 
by the eagerness of two hackmen who, as we 
were the only passengers left at the station, were 
especially zealous for our patronage," Mr. Leech 
and family were soon deposited at the door of his 
sister, the wife of William Tills. 

" Although I had not seen her for thirty years 
yet, no sooner did she see me than, throw- 
ing her arms around my neck, she exclaimed : 
' Oh, my Brother ! ' I need not add that our 
reception was cordial and our stay with them 
characterized by every trait of genuine hospi- 
tality." 

Here, also, our hero showed his good citizen- 
ship when he records : " Having been so long 
away from England, everything peculiarly Eng- 
lish struck me with almost as much force as it 
would a native American. Hence my feelings re- 



At the Old IIomk. 193 

volted at the sij^ht of innunicrahlc hc^'-j^Mrs and 
vagrants, who crowded the streets ; and liouscless 
famihes iniplorinn^ a crust for tlieir half-naked 
little ones with many a tale of sorrow, were sights 
that greeted my eyes and pained mv heart every 
day." 

Remaining a week with the hospitable Tills 
our American friends proceeded to Birmingliam 
and thence by stage to Woodstock, " subject, how- 
ever, to the incessant exactions of a host of 
waiters, guards and coachmen who all wanted to 
be * remembered.' " 

'* Oh, I'll never forget you," was Mr. Leech's 
vexed reply. 

" The country through which we rode was 
delightful," continued our hero. 

About dusk, the stage drew up with the usual 
bustle of importance and ceremony at the Marl- 
borough Arms, the same hostlery from which our 
hero had departed, thirty-one years before, in 
search of fame and fortune. " The first object 
that met my eye," he wrote, " was the revered 
form of my mother, waiting on the sidewalk, 
eager to embrace her much-loved but long absent 
son. Springing to the ground I felt myself 
locked in her fond embrace. That was a moment 
of exquisite enjoyment. Although my mother 
was deeply moved, she maintained a calm dignity 



194 Again at Blenheim. 

of manner. In a few moments she was showing 
the way with the agihty of a young woman. 
She held a new-found grandchild at each hand. 
Reaching her residence, which was near by, we 
were soon seated around the well-loaded board, 
the happiest family party in the world." 

While at Blenheim, Mr. Leech paid a visit 
to Oxford and saw the room in which John 
Wesley studied and other places associated with 
the birth of Methodism. Returning to Bladen, 
our hero made preparations for the return trip to 
America. He records : " After receiving the 
utmost kindness, hospitality and evidences of 
friendship from my family and friends, I took 
leave of them forever. Many of the neighbors, 
with my mother, accompanied me to Woodstock. 
There I wished her adieu and, while the coach 
whirled away, she stood following us with her 
eyes, the last of the company, until a projection 
of the park wall hid us from each other — and 
forever. Who could forbear a tear in such a 
moment ? I could not, and suffered the big drops 
to roll down my cheeks at will." 

Passing on to London, Mr. Leech visited Wan- 
stead and learned that his aunt — she of the 
twenty-two sons and two daughters — was yet 
alive. Our hero says : " My brother asked her 
if she knew me. Peering through her spectacles 



A Perilous Voyage. 195 

and siiniinoniiio^ up the imaj^cry of tlic past, she 
at length called to niiiul her former protege and 
clasped me to her arms with evident ^^ratification." 

On the 25th of August Mr. Leech and family 
sailed from London " in a fine ship commanded 
by Captain Eldridge, bound for Boston," and after 
a most tempestuous passage of seventy-five days, 
arrived at their destination. Returning to Wil- 
braham, " we were hailed," says Mr. Leech, " with 
joyful congratulations by our neighbors who had 
begun to mourn us as among the lost at sea." 

Shortly after his return to America our hero 
received a letter announcing the death of his 
mother. Samuel Leech died in the year 1848 in 
Wilbraham. 



INDEX 



Adams, boatswain's mate, 

113-. 
A d mi rally's confidential 

note, i8, 19. 
Adventure, 150. 
Aldrich, sailor, 102. 
Angola, 152, 154, 155. 
Antigua, 26. 

Archer, midshipman, 122. 
Ascension island, 155. 

Badiem, Dutcliman, 161-163, 

168. 
Band of music, 66, 67, 168. 
Banquet of victory, 131. 
Barton, 148-150. 
Bay of Bisca}^ 60, 61. 
Belem Castle, 37. 
Benton & Co., 136, 183. 
Bight o' Lisbon, 59. 
Black Tom, 63, 64. 
Bladen festival, 28. 
Bladen village, 27, 23> 80, 

194. 
Blenheim, 24. 
Blenheim, battle of, 27. 
Blenheim palace, 28, 29. 
Blenheim park, 28. 
Boston, 2>7- 
Boxer, 183-184. 
Brest, 81, 83. 
" Broomers," 74. 
Brown, William, 113, 114. 



Bunker Hill, battle of. 161, 
162. 

Caesar, 54. 

Canary Islands, 142. 

Canister shot, 107. 

Cape Three Points, 147. 

Cape Town, 158. 162, 170. 

Card, John, 97, 98. 

Carden, John Surman, 47, 
56 ; commands Macedo- 
nian, 65 ; as a musician, 
67, 72-74; at Norfolk, 78, 
86, 87; in battle against 
United States, 93-129. 

Carpenter, William, 179, 180. 

Carruth, William Ward, 16. 

Carson, Captain, 56. 

Chesapeake, 67. 

Christnvi^-. aboard, 41, 42; in 
prison, 163. 

" Chronicle," London, 120, 
121. 

Churchill, John, 27. 

Churchill, Lady Francis, 17. 
187, 190. 

Churchill, Lord, 23, 108, 191. 

City Hotel, 131. 

Collier, Sir George, 88. 

Constitution, 18, 19, 85, 88, 

90, 139- 
Cooper, boy, 105. 
Counterfeiting, 178. 



198 



Index. 



Coventry, 184. 
Crowninshield, Mr., 174. 
Cumberland, 170, 171. 
Cyane, 46, 87, 90. 

Danube river, 27. 
Dartmoor prison, 178. 
Dawson, boatswain, 125, 130. 
Day, James, 125, 133. 
Deal, Lewis, 138. 
Decatur, Mrs., 132. 
Decatur, Stephen, yy, 78, 

115, 116, 131, 132. 
Division of labor in frigates, 

43-46. 
Dow, Lorenzo, 187. 
Dunham, Ella, 185. 
Dutch courage, 46. 

East Indies, 93. 

Elba, 173. 

Eldridge, Capt, 195. 

Elms, Mrs., 130. 

Endymion, 90. 

Epping forest, 22. 

Escaped French prisoners, 

82, 83. 
Essex, frigate, 50, 118. 

Fayal, 90. 

Fish Market, Lisbon, 58, 59. 

Fitzroy, William, 17, 22, 29, 

30, 33, 51, 52; cashiered, 

55,56; 65. 
Floggmg, 46, 47; through 

the fleet, 48-50. 
Fly Market, New York, 130. 
Frolic, 139. 

Gale, midshipman, 47. 
Garvey, William, 36. 
General Armstrong, 90. 



George Washington, 191. 
Goat, Macedonian's, 104. 
Grafton, Duke of, 17, 22, 23. 
Grampus, 171, 173, 174. 
Grand Turk, 141, 143. 
Grapeshot, 107. 
Gravesend, 33. 
Greenock, 54. 
Grog, 46. 
Guerriere, 18, 19, 85, 89, 116. 

Half Moon Battery, 37. 

Halifax, 124. 

Hammond, Bob, 70-74. 

Hampton Roads, 76, 77. 

Hannibal, 54. 

" Happy Jack," 52, 53. 

Harper, William, 134. 

Hartford, 133, 184. 

Hawes, Rev., 188. 

Hell Gate, 123. 

Hessians, 42. 

Hill, Rev. Rowland, 169. 

Hope, David, 60, 73, 103, 108. 

Hornet, go. 

Hudson, sailor, 35. 

Impressing sailors, 57, 60. 

Jack, Dr., 164. 
Jane, 147, 151. 
Java, 18, 85. 
Jennings, Sarah, 27. 
John Adams, 133, 135, 156. 
Jones, Captain, 176, 182. 

Kivell, Nan, 102. 

Lake Borgne, 90. 

Leander, 88. 

Leech, Mr., 17, 22, 30. 



Index. 



199 



Leech. Mrs.. 26. 30, 34, 35, 
laS, 186, 187 190, 192-194. 

Leech, Samuel, hirth and 
childhood, 21-31 ; first ex- 
periences ahoard, 32-36; 
at Lisbon, 37-74; at Nor- 
folk, 75-7<^; at Plymouth, 
80, 81 ; on French coast, 
82-84; his narrative of the 
United States-Macedonian 
battle, 92-117; Newport to 
New York, 122, 123 ; es- 
cape from Macedonian, 
124-127; attends banquet, 
131, 132; enlisting in U. 
S. Navy, 134, 135; be- 
comes a shoemaker, 136; 
at Salem, 137-139; ships 
in Siren, 139, 140; death 
of Capt. Parker, 142 ; on 
w^est coast of Africa, 143- 
146; "Battle of Senegal," 
147; learns value of water, 
151-153; captured by Mcd- 
zvay, 154-157; in south 
African prison, 158-169; 
dangerous passage to Eng- 
land, 170-177; returning 
to America, 178-183; in 
Boxer, 184, 185; joins 
church, 185, 186; visit to 
England, 190-194; death, 
195- 

Leopard, 67. 

Levant, 46, 87, 90. 

Lewis, sailing-master, 55. 

Lisbon, 37-42. 

Liverpool, 192. 

Logholm, sailor, 68, iii, 

London, 26, 2)3- 

Long Island Sound, 121. 



Macedonian, 17-19, 29; fit- 
ting at Ciravescnd, 33-37; 
at Lisbon, 3742; nr.Trly 
founders, 60, 61 ; at Hamp- 
ton Roads, 75-7S; at Ply- 
mouth, 80-82; battle with 
the United States. 86-129; 
in America, 130, 188. 

^Tackenzie, Capt. A. S., 78. 

Madeira, 69, 93. 

Mahan. Alfred Thayer, 16. 

Mansfield, 184. 187. 

Marlborough Arms, ^^, 193. 

^Larlborough, Duke of, 17, 
26, 28, :^3. 

Marsh, Surgeon, 62, no. 

McNiell, Captain, 66, 67. 

Medzcay, 157. 158, 171, 176. 

Merrimac, 18, 85, 86. 

Messina, 66. 

Monitor, 18, 85, 86. 

Moscow, 120. 

Mount Cintra, 79. 

Musicians in Macedonian, 
66, 67; in battle, 96, 97. 

Nan, ship's goat, 104. 
Nan Kivell (see Kivell). 
Napoleon, 120, 173. 
Nautilus, go. 
Nelson, Lord, 98. 
New Haven, 184. 
New London, 121, 122, 124. 
Newman, Mr., 26, 27, 187. 
Newman, Mrs. (see Leech, 

Mrs.). 
Newport, 122, 
New York, 123, 124, 130, 

182. 183. 
Nicholson, John B., io(>, no, 

130; in Siren, 141-15^, i/J. 

175, 179. 



200 



Index. 



Nightingale Place, 22. 
Norfolk, 75, 'j'j, no. 
Northunberland, 54. 
Nova Scotia, 129. 
Nugent, negro, 56, 57. 

Old Ironsides, 139. 
Old Wagon, 116. 
Oxford, 194. 

Paris, 173. 

Parker, George, 139, 142. 

Peacock, 90. 

Penguin, go. 

Philadelphia, 133-135. 

" Philamadelph," 133, 134. 

Plum duff, 46. 

Plymouth, 80-82, 92, 176. 

Porter, David, 183, 184. 

Portsmouth, 88. 

" Post Office," 155. 

Powder-monkey, 38. 

President, 19, 86, 88, 90. 

Pressgangs, 57, 60. 

Prison at Cape Town, 160- 

170. 
Providence, 137. 
Puissant, 175, 176. 

Quaqua, Samuel, 150. 

Reed, carpenter, no. 
Rochelle, 81. 
Rover, 176. 
Royal Sovereign, 177. 

Sadler, John, 71, 72, 105, 132, 

133. 
Salem, 137, 174, 175. 
Sanders, steward, 38. 
Senegal river, 146, 147. 



Simon's Bay, 158, 168. 
Siren, 139; cruise, 141-158. 
Smith, Captain, 50. 
Smith, soldier, 136. 
Somers, Mass., 188. 
Spencer, Lady Francis, 17, 

23, 29, 30, 187. 
Spencer, Lord Francis, 23, 

29, 187. 
Spithead, 37, 175. 
" Statesman," London, 88. 
St. Helena, 172. 
St. Michael's, 69. 
St. Thomas, 147, 148, 151, 

154. 
Suttonwood, Richard, 51, 52, 

Tagus, 37,^ 79. 

Thames river, 33. 

Thom, Rev. George, 168-170. 

Thompson, John, 61, 62. 

"Thunderer," The (see 

"Times"). 
Tills, William, 192, 193. 
" Times," London, 18, 88-90, 

119, 120. 
Tinker, N. Y. pilot, 124. 
Torbay, 92. 
Trenton, 42. 
Trinidad, 26. 
" Trunk," The, 166, 167. 
Turner boys, 24. 
Turner, George, 25, 136, 137. 
Turner, Mrs., 23, 194, 195. 
Turner, Mrs. Jr., 137. 

United States, 18, 19; at 
Norfolk, 78, 85; battle 
with Macedonian, 86-129; 
in New York, 130, 131. 

Wagoners, 116, 117. 
Waldgrave, Captain, 56. 



Index. 



20I 



Walthamstow, 23. 
Wanstead, 21, 22, 26, 28, 194. 
Ward Island, 123. 
Washington, 42. 
Watson, George, 156. 
Watson, sailor, 108. 
Wells, sailor, 112. 
Wesley, John, 194. 
West India Docks, 26. 
Whisky, John, 186. 



Whittakcr, Thomas, 122. 
\Vil!)raham, 188, 191, 1Q5. 
Winehurg, 159. 
Women in men-of-war, 01, 

69, 70. 
Woodrop Simms, 176. 178- 

182. 
Woodstock, 26, 27, 193. 

Voutig Macedonian, 84. 



THE END. 



BY EDGAR STANTON MACLAY 



A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, 

From the earliest times to 1902 in three 8vo vols, with a total of 
1832 pages and 170 maps, diagrams and illustrations. Index. 
Third edition published in 1902. $3 a volume. 

This monumental work, from the time it was first published, 
1894, has been pronounced by the leading literary critics of | 
America, Europe and Japan as THE STANDARD. ' 

Extract from chapter on "Battle in Mobile Bay," vol. II, pp. 425- 
426: "The view of the battle obtained from the tops of the National 
vessels was one of appalling grandeur. To windward the fleet and 
harbor were spread out in a beautiful panorama, the crews being dis- 
tinctly seen firing and reloading their guns, while officers stood at the 
back of their men to see that there was no flinching, and others ran to 
and fro shouting orders in their endeavors to prevent a collision. To 
leeward dense volumes of smoke, illuminated by the rapid flashes of 
guns, partly obstructed the vision, but in the occasional rifts a tall 
mast with men in the rigging and with Old Glory still flying in the 
breeze would be revealed. Above all rose the dreadful roar of the 
tremendous cannonading, whose sharp impact upon the ear, giving the 
peculiar sound of shotted guns, seemed to come from all quarters with 
deafening rapidity, while the ships and their masts quivered like aspens 
from the recoil of their murderous broadsides. 

" A glance below on the deck of the Hartford revealed the men in 
their diff^erent capacities, some loading and aiming the guns, some 
bringing up ammunition and others carrying down the wounded ; but 
all stimulated to their utmost exertions by the ever-vigilant officers. 
Most of the men were stripped to the waist, many of them smeared 
with the blood of shipmates whom they had carried below. Others, 
although wounded, refused to go below and remained on deck fighting. 

" What a pandemonium ! What a hell upon earth ! Shot, shell, grape, 
shrapnel and canister. How they shriek ! How the men fight ! drag- 
ging dead or wounded shipmates away so as not to encumber the guns. 
Bloody and blackened with burned powder, the perspiration running 
down their bodies revealing streaks of white skin, causes them to look 
like fiends. The sight of their fallen shipmates arouses the brutish 
thirst for vengeance and they load and fire with muttered imprecations 
on the enemy. Their ofilicers walk among them with ' Steady, boys ! ', 
' Take your time ! ', 'Be sure of your aim ! ', * Let each shot tell ! ' 

" In the midst of all this uproar stand Drayton and his executive 
officer, Kimberly, the latter smiling and twirling his goatee ; both as 
cool as if ' 'twa a daily drill.' It was in reference to the heroism of 
the crew that Brownell wrote : 

"'But ah, the pluck of the crew! 
"'Had you stood on that deck of ours 
" ' You had seen isuhat men may do.' " 

202 



i 



BY EDiiJR sr./.\I(j.\ M.li.l 1) 



A HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRIVATKKRS, 

Unif(^nii with and furniiiiii vol. IV of Maolay's History of the l'. 
S. Xavy. 8v(>. ^^i) paiL^cs. 37 specially prf|>ari-(| maps, diaKrnin^ ami 

illustrations, ijuk-x. puhlishod iR<>S — $3. 

It stands alone as a romarkable story of American daring, enter- 
prise and consummate pluck and nautical skill. 

I'xtract froni ciiaptir on " .\n l",scap'' l-'roni .Mill I'risoji " ( I^^^•? ""''' . 
pp. 160-161 : "On lo.ipinij over the lu'dj^c ho [Lieut. Joshua I' 
U. S. N.] found hiiufelf in the supcrh private ^roiuids of Lorcl Kd^c- 
combe. Wandering about in search of the servants' house, he wa'^ dis 
covered by the gartkner, who was nnich incensed by the intrusion. 
Barney pacified him by explainint:: that he had injured his U-k an<I wan 
seeking the shortest way to Plymouth. Giving the gardener a tip, 
Barney was conducted to a private gate opening on the river and hail- 
ing a butcher who was going by in a small wherry with two v!irrn 
to market, our adventurer got aboard. By this means Harney a 
the necessity of crossing the river by the public ferry, and also that of 
pas'^ing by ^lill Prison and a chance of meeting the guard. 

■■ Immediately on receiving the report of the privateer's commander. 
Admiral Digby caused an inquiry to be made in all the prisons ami 
places of confinement in or near Plymouth, and at the tune liarncy 
was sliding down the rope over the privateer's stern to get into a lx>at. 
his escape from Mill Prison was discovered; and at the inoinetit he 
passed through Lord Edgecombe's private gate to the riverside, the 
tramp of the soldiers — all of whom were familiar with Barney— was 
heard, passing the very hedge he had just vaulted over, on tlu-ir way 
to take him back to prison. 

' That night Barney gained the house of the venerable clergyman 
that he had left only the morning before. The same eveningC" ' 
Richardson and Dr.' Hindman arrived at this house also, haviuK ■^-■^ 
released from the privateer after the guard from Mill Prison liad in- 
spected them. While these futigives were seated at supper, laujjhing 
and joking over their hapless adventures, the bell of the town orirr 
was heard under the windows and the reward of five guineas for the 
apprehension of 'Joshua Barney, a rebel deserter from Mill Prison.' 
[was proclaimed. For a moment ," etc. 

REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD NAVY, 

From the journals and private papers of Captain lulward Trench- 
ard. U. S. N.. and Rear-.\dmiral Stephen Decatur Trcnchard. U. 
S. N.. 8vo. 372 pages, index. $2.50. 

It gives fascinating " inside " glimpses of our navy from 1800 to 
1883. 
Extract from chapter "On The West Coast of Africa." pp. iJ^-20: 
'The musician^ of the high seas in those days [1820! dul not occupy 

T4 ^^ 



1 



BY EDGAR STANTON MACLAY 



the important position they hold in firstclass cruisers to-day, and the 
few lone and lorn manipulators of wood and brass in the Cyanc, in all 
probability, would have made a poor showing in the highly cultivated 
musical ear of the modern Jack Tar. In fact, musicians at that time 
were regarded with condescending contempt by the hardy sailors as 
being, perhaps, good enough to tickle the ear with their tingling notes 
or to twitch a few muscles of the limbs into a jigging mood in fair 
weather ; but when it came to real work, and an enemy was to be 
fought, they were fit only to be stowed away in a cable tier. But how- 
ever that may be, the Jack Tar of that day had not the high musical 
mind of his descendants of to-day and he undoubtedly tolerated the 
tingling brass and the wheezy wood with his usual, good-natured in- ' 
difference. 

" The natives on the coast, however, were immensely impressed with i 
the Cyane's band. To hear it was one of the events on the Westt 
African coast; and its fame extended even to the islands of the seas> 
as the following incident will show: On May 19/1820, the Cyane put 
into Port Praya. after a cruise in search of slavers. The fame off 
her band had preceded her for scarcely had she dropped anchor when a i 
messenger came aboard with the announcement that ' His Excellency, . 
the Governor-General, solicits the pleasure of Captain Trenchard'sj 
company, with that of all the officers of the Cyane, to tea this evenings 
and would be highly gratified with having a few tunes from Captaini 
Trenchard's band, which he solicits m.ay be permitted to come on shores 
with their musical instruments, as the evening will be rendered delight 
ful and pleasant by a full moon.' This enchanting invitation to 'tea*'' 
and a 'full moon' was sent through, one Hodges, an English-speaking' 
person on the island — and the above is as near a literal interpretation 
as can be given. 

" Captain Trenchard complied with the request and attended the Gov- 
ernor. After a decent amount of time had been allowed the American 
officers for the contemplation of the tea and the full moon, the natives 
were treated to, what to them were, the awe-inspiring sounds from the 
Cyane's band. With forethought bred by experience, the band-master 
labelled in advance the tunes that he was about to' render so that the 
audience would have no difficulty in knowing what melody they were 
'feasting' upon. So impressed were the natives by this revelation of 
sound that the Governor, on the following Sunday, when the moon had 
again recovered her position in the heaven after her fullness, invited 
Captain Trenchard and Lieutenant Mervine ' and any of the officers 
that can be spared from the ship ' to dinner — and, of course the band 
had to be exhibited again." 



NAVY BLUE COMPANY 
Greenlawn, N. Y. 



204 



nr Eiui.i R SI .1 \ I ()\ M ,/(,/ J ) 



ADVENTURES OF REAR ADMIRAL 
I'Voiii the (liiiry .iikI i)rivatr neon 
said: " Don't oIk-ct, men. 
poor (li'vils nil- dy- 
iJin.". jSS i)aij;i-s, 



I'HIMP, U. S. N., 

s of ilu- Inic- Kf.ir Admiral who 



those 
in.U I " 



l.xlrael 
Annapolis." 
instruetors 



from eliapter " At 
p. 5S: • One of the 
at Annapolis durin;^ 
jaek's novitiate was a .ureatly be- 
loved man whose only fanll — so 
the middies declared — was that 
of stannnering when unusnally 
exicited or nervous. One beau- 
tiful spring morning, when the 
middies were drilling in in- 
fantry tacties under the care of 
this ofHcer. the youngsters were 
marching toward the seawall and 
were within a few feet of it. 
when their commander en- 
deavored to give the order 

" The middies heard the hiss- 
ing and spluttering noises be- 
hind them and knew perfectly 
well what the instructor was try- 
ing to say bnt, in that spirit of 
mischief so natural with boys, 
they marched right over the sea- 
wall and had waded into a con- 
siderable depth of water before 
the instructor finally gave vent 
to the word ' Halt! '" 




MIDSIIII'MAN rillLII'. 



I MOSES BROWN, CAPTAIN, U. S. N., 

Captain Rrown rendered conspicuous, though forgotten, service on 
the ocean in the Revolution and the war against France ij mo, 
10 illustrations, index. 220 pages, $1.50. 

Extract from the chapter "A Prisoner of War." pp. Q3-Q5 : '" Three 
days after her capture of the George, the career of the privateer ((»".-»i- 
eral Ariiold] was cut short, she being captured (June i, 1770) by the 
50-gun ship Exf^crimcnt, Captain Sir James Wallace. It is relate<i that 
when Captain Brown gained the deck of the Hxpcrimcnt. Sir James 
asked him if he was th<' 'Captain of that rebel ship.* Brown replied: 

205 



BY EDGAR STANTON MACLAY 



'I was very lately; you are now/ and offered to surrender his sword. 
Captain Wallace refused to receive it, saying : ' I never take a sword 
from a brave man.' 

" Sir James continued to extend every courtesy to his prisoner, treat- 
ing him more as a guest. Taking Captain Brown into his private cabin, 

where he met other officers of 
the ship, a general conversation 
followed (over the traditional 
'glass of wine') upon the affairs 
of the two countries, when Sir 
James proposed as a toast ' His 
Majesty, King George the 
Third.' It was rather hard for 
the doughty Yankee skipper to 
accept but he swallowed his wine 
without remark. Sir James now 
called on Brown for a return 
toast — thinking, from Brown's 
silence that he had acquiesced in 
the sentiment and would respond 
with something of the like. 

" Rising with much dignity 
and unawed by his position as a 
prisoner aboard a powerful 
enemy's warship, Captain Brown 
gave as a toast : ' His Ex- 
cellency, General George Wash- 
ington, the Commander-in-chief 
of the American forces.' 

" The glass which Sir James 
had raised to his lips was hastily 
lowered and, turning fiercely on 
his prisoner, he asked : ' Do 
you mean to insult me, sir, in m}^ own ship by proposing the name 
of that arch rebel?' 'No,' replied Captain Brown. 'If there was 
any insult it was your giving, as a toast, George the Third, which, 
however, I did not hesitate to drink to, although you must have known 
it could not be agreeable to me who, at this moment, am a guest al- 
though a prisoner.' Sir James at once perceived that if there had 
been a breach of etiquette, he had led the way and, like the honor- 
able man he was, he suppressed his anger and drank to that ' arch 
rebel ' Washington." 




MOSES BROWN. 



NAVY BLUE COMPANY 

Greenlawn, N. Y. 



206 



nr EDc;./ /< sr./ \ rox m .n. i .n 



JOURNAL OF WILLIAM MACLAY, Edited by Edgar Stanton BfacUy, 

William Maclay, with Robert Morris, rtpri->cMlc«l Pennsylvania in 
tlu' tirst United States Senate, 17S9-1791. 8vo, 452 pa^cs, in<Icx, 

Maclay's successful fight against the introduction of monarchial 
forms in the "new" Government won for him the title of 
"Father of the Democratic party." A "canopied throne" and 
the title of " His Elective Majesty " for the President would 
have been given had it not been for the sturdy opposition made 
by Senator Maclay. His journal is the only connected record of 
the first United States Senate. 
Extract from pp. 7374: "Dined this day (June 11. xy^)] with Mr. 

Morris [Senator from Pennsylvania]. Mr. I'itzsinmions and Mr. 

Chniier [Representatives from Pennsylvania] all the company, except 

Mrs. Morris. Mrs. Morris talked a great deal :ifi<r 'liiii!' r S'"- d"! 

it gracefully enough, this being 

a gayer pb.cc and she being here 

considered as at least the second 

female character at court. As 

to taste, etiquette etc., she is 

certainly tirst. I thought she 

discovered a predeliction for 

New York but perhaps she was 

only doing it justice, while my 

extreme aversion, like a jealous 

sentinel, is for giving no quarter. 

I. however, happened to mention 

that they were ill supplied witl. 

the article of cream. Mrs. 

Morris had much to say on this 

subject; declared they had done 

all they could and even sent to 

the country all about, but that 

they could not be supplied. She 

told many anecdotes on this sub- 
ject; particularly how. two days 

ago. she dined' at the Presi- 
dent's. A large, fine-looking 

trille was brought to table and 

appeared exceedingly well in- 
deed. She was helped by the 

President but on taking some 

of it, she had to pass her handkerchief 10 her moutli and nd herself of 

the morsel ; on which she whispered the President. The cream of which 

it is made had been unusually stale and rancid ; on which the General 

changed his plate immediately. * But," she added with a titter. * \\r< 

Wasiiington ate a whole heap of it.''* 

2<")7 




WU.LLX.M .M.\CI..\Y. 



BY EDGAR STANTON MACLAY. 




PENNSYLVANIA STATE 

MONUMENT TO 

SAMUEL MACLAY. 



DIARY OF SAMUEL MACLAY, Edited 
by Edgar Stanton Maclay, 

Being an account of the first official 
survey of the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna, the Sinnemahoning 
and Allegheny rivers in 1790. 8vo, 
63 pages. $2. 

Samuel Maclay, a brother of 
U. S. Senator William Maclay, 
was United States Senator from 
Pennsyvania from 1803 to 1809. 
He was a Congressman from 
Pennsylvania i795-'96, Speaker 
of the Pennsylvania State Sen- 
ate 1801-1803 and presided at 
the impeachment trial of Judge 
Addison. On Oct. 16, 1908, the 
State of Pennsylvania dedicated 
a monument to his memory at 
Lewisburg, Pa. 



When selecting holiday or birthday gifts, remember the standard 
works on the Navy ! By interesting landfolk in the deeds of our sailors 
and warships, you render the Navy a distinct service. 



NAVY BLUE COMPANY 
Greenlawn, N. Y. 



20s 



BY KDCriR sr./\'I'()\ M./c/./y 



MACLAYS OF LURGAN, 

A coniplclc rcci'id of the clcsccndaiiis nf (harlrs and John Maclay, 
who cniiijjrated from Belfast, Ireland, in I7.V} and settled in I*, im 
sylvania. -4to, 80 pages, $5. 

This work has been pronounced a model of genealogical rencarch 
and presentation. It should be in every public library and 
historical collection. For more than a century descendants of 
John and Charles Maclay have been prominent in the history 
of Pennsylvania and other states. 

Extract from p. 14: "I |l'. S. Senator William .Maclay] received 
a ticket from the President of the United States | Washington), to use 
his box this evening [May 11. 1789] at the theater, hein^j the first of 
his appearance at the play-house since his enterinj; on his otVice. Went. 
The President. Governor of the State, ln)reiji;n Ministers. Senators 
from Xew Hampshire. Connecticut. Pcmisylvania. Maryland and South 
Carolina, and some ladies in the same box. I am old and notices or 
attemions are lost on me. I could have wished some of my dear 
ciiildren in my place. They are young and would have enjoyed it. 
Long might one of them live to boast of their having been seated in 
the same box with the first character in the world. The play was 
' The Scliool for Scandal.' I never liked it. Indeed. I think it an in- 
decent representation before ladies of character and virtue, l-arce, 
* The Old Soldier.' The house was greatly crowded and I thought the 
players acted well: but I wish we had seen the 'Conscious Lovers' or 
some one that inculcated more prudential manners." 

A YOUTHFUL MAN-O'-WARSMAN. 

This is the only connected narrative of ;in enlisted .\merican 
sailor who served all through the War of iXij, umo. _'oi pages, 
16 illustrations, index, $1.50. 



Send some of the standard books on our Navy, v.ith ynur compli- 
ments, to the school or public library of your native town. Educate the 

public as to what our Xavy has done! 

XA\'Y BLUE COMPANY 
Greexlawn, N. Y. 



209 



THE STORY OF A HISTORY. 



We have often been asked : " How came Edgar Stanton Maclay, 
a landman, to write so authoritatively on the navy ? '' The question 
is natural and in spite of Mr. Maclay's protest against having " my 
obituary published before I am dead," we will answer it as well as 
we can. 

Although a landman, Mr. Ma- 
clay has traveled more exten- 
sively on the ocean than many 
professional sailors besides being 
an expert in aquatic arts. His 
father, the late Rev. Robert 
Samuel Maclay. D. D., was sent : 
out from the Baltimore Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in 1847 as one of the first 
missionaries of that denomina- 
tion to China. The historian's 
mother was Henrietta Caroline 
Sperry, of Bristol, Connecticut. 

Edgar Stanton Maclay, the 
youngest of eight children, was 
l)orn in Foochow, China, April 
18, 1863. When five years old he 
came to America with his mother 
where he remained fi^ve years 
and in 1873 went with the family 
to Yokohama, Japan, remaining 
there until 1880. It was there 
that our historian received his 
lirst inspiration for writing his 
History of the United States 
Navy. His only playmates, dur- 
ing the seven years he lived in 
the Island Empire, were English, 
French and German boys ; and 
many were the wordy battles 
waged between them over the 
relative merits of their respective countries. Yokohama, at that time, 
was one of the principal stations for men-of-war of nations maintain- 
ing a naval force in the Orient. Being an expert boatman, young 
Maclay spent many of his leisure hours in his boat on the broad waters 
of Yokohama Bay, visiting and inspecting American, European and 
Japanese warships. 

Naturally the presence of these belligerent craft provoked discussions 
between young Maclay and his European playmates. Maclay, while 
sturdily upholding the American end of these " verbal actions," often 
found himself at great disadvantage because there was no history of the 

210 




REV. R. S. MACLAY, D. D. 



THE s j'OR y or .1 Ills ion > 



I'liitt'd Stall's \a\v. at that tinu-. from vvhifh to rc|>Irnish hi* «.f'M*W of 
\V(ir(l>' ainimimtion, while his aiilai^oiiists (particularly thr i > 

tiri'd broadsides ^^\ naval history 
at him from luiropean historical 
arsenals. Possibly the most 
x'ffoctive discharges came from 
jamev' History of the hritish 
Xa\\, writlen l)y one \vhi» was 
especially bitter toward Aimri 
cans. Young Maclay keenly fell 
his disad\;;ntage and he deter- 
jiiined that his first mission on 
getting out of college ( for 
which his mother all this time 
had been, personally, preparing 
him ) would be to write a his- 
tory of tile United States Navy 

In i8<So >oung Maclay came to 
the L'nited States and in the fol- 
lowing year entered the classical 
course in Syracuse Universitx. 
X. v., being graduated in 1SS5 
with the degree of A. W. Com- 
pleting his ct)urse two months 
ahead of his class, Maclay went 
to Europe to gather original 
material for his naval history. 
Being sui)plicd only with modest 
funds by an elder brother. Ma- 
clay took steerage passage, which 
he always declared was a most 
valuable experience as it placed 
him on terms of intimacy with 
the sailors and gave him a practical insight into modern seamanship 
which has manifested itself so remarkably in all his nautical wnlmiis. 
In his persistency in getting original material. Maclay cro>v-td the 
Atlantic four times, three of the voyages being in the steerag' 

He spent more than a year in England, {''ranee. Holland and '": 
many and was fortunate in unearthing much vrduable M«ti' i' :> 

on American maritime history. In the I-Vench Marine •• I 

archives and in tlie Biblii'thcquc Witimialc in Paris he «'; >-• 

original official reports of the Erench commanders concerned in our 
war against Erance, 1708-1800. wh.ich threw a nood of linht on what, 
down to that time, had been an almost unknow^i chapter in our nation.ii 
histor}-. In the British Museum Library and in the Ailmiralty OlVicc 
in London, where he spent more than six months. Maclay unearthed 
many new facts bearing on his theme. Me expresses most satisfaction. 

211 




El)t;\k ST.XNIUN .\{ACI..\V. 



THE STORY OF A HISTORY 



however, over the documents he secured from Sir Provo WaUis in 
1886, then the venerable senior admiral of the royal navy, who served 
as first lieutenant in the English frigate Shannon which captured the 
American frigate Chesapeake, June i, 1813, off Boston harbor. It was 
this meeting with Sir Provo that Maclay regarded as " spanning a 
century in historical research." Sir Provo died on February 13, 1892, 
at the age of a little more than one hundred years. 

From Sir Provo, Mr. Maclay obtained proof that settled the thereto- 
fore mooted question as to whether or not Captain James Lawrence 
gave expression to the words " Don't give up the ship " — Sir Provo 
saying to Mr. Maclay " We heard that when they were carrying Cap- 
tain Lawrence below, mortally wounded, he uttered the words ' Don't 
give up the ship.' " 

Mr. Maclay also obtained from Sir Provo documents showing that 
Captain Broke's official report of the Chesapeake-Shannon action was 
an absolute forger}^ — Broke commanding the latter ship on that occa- 
sion. This point was of value in view of the charge that many of the 
official reports of British commanders in the naval war of 1812, as 
given to the public, were garbled and misleading. This charge became 
more serious when, in response to Maclay's request to see the original 
papers, the Admiralty wrote to him : " their Lordships express to you 
their regrets at not being able to comply with this request, as the regu- 
lations in force preclude all public inspection of admiralty records after 
the year 1800." 

Returning to America in July, 1886, Maclay in two years completed 
his History of the Navy, then in two volumes, 1775-1866. For four 
years after that the manuscript went the rounds of nearly every leading 
publishing house in New York City. Not one would accept it. Some 
said " We do not see that the market calls for a history of the navy " 
and yet, at that time no complete narrative of our navy's career was in 
existence — Coopers work, which came down only to the Mexican war, 
long since having been out of print. " The fact of the matter," said 
Maclay, " was that it was rather too presumptuous for an unknown 
author, scarce twenty-six years old, to undertake such a pretentious 
work — and the publishers, very properly looking at it from a strictly 
business viewpoint, may have been right. Anyway, the manuscript 
was knocked about in an old satchel for six years, and more than once 
I was tempted to burn it up." 

Determined to emerge from the class of " unknowns," Maclay applied 
himself diligently to other historical works. He wrote a History of 
the Maclays of Lurgan (published 1888) which has been pronounced 
a model of genealogical record. He traced his clan back to the Battle 
of Bealach nam Broig, 1272, in the Scottish Highlands, and gave a 
complete account of each of the several hundred descendants of Charles 
and John Maclay who came to America from Ireland in 1734. The 

212 



iiiE s'ro R r or ./ // 1 s i <} r y 



voiinn liistcirian iluii pulilislud (iS<)()) thr Jniirnal of Willinni M:i' ' 
( r. S. SmatiM fnin I'l nnsylvaiiia. I7S«)-I7<)I) which pr«»vci| to l»c 
i)\ tlu' inn-^t important aiMilions to Aiiu'ricati history in tn • • 
as it i;a\c ihc onl\ i-oiuu-ctrd narrative <if the doiiiK'' "f tl'- i" ■ 
Congress in Uio lirst two yrars of its cxistoncc. 

Two articles writtru liy Marlay and piihlished in the Century M.'iKa- 
zine in the fall of i.S()o attracted fnrther attention to the yoiniK his- 
torian and it was then that several of tin- publivlu-rs who liad f' ' ! 
his manuscript on the history of the navy, re dpeiied negotiation- ,,.;.» 
him. otYerinii fifty per cent moir than the regular royalties. These 
offers were declined and in iS<)3 the lonj^-discarded History of the 
Xavy was accepted hy 1 >. AppUttm X- Company and was puhhsiu'<I in 
the followinc!: year in two volumes. It hecame an iniiMe«liatc siiccf s 
A secontl edition was hrou.uht out in iS<>S and ni the same year ip 
peared Maclay's Reminiscences of the Old Nav>, puhlishcd hy (J. P. 
Putnam's Sons, in ih.e following; year I). Appleton & Company pul>- 
lislied Maclay's History of American Privateers, uniform witli his 
History of the Navy. 
In 1901 appeared 
the third edition of 
Maclay's naval history 
with the addition of 
\'ol. Ill covering the 
Spanish-A m e r i c a n 
War and in 190J a 
second edition of Vol. 
HI was issued. In 
1903 Maclay published 
his " Life and Ad- 
ventures of Jack 
Philip. Rear-Admiral. 
C. S. N.," and in 
t h e following year 
■■ Moses Brown, Cap- 
tain, U. S. N." 

Not the least im- 
portant of Mr. Ma- 
clay's achievements, 
is his recent dis- 
covery of several sea 
tights in the Revolu- 
tion which had es- 
caped, for more than 
a centurv. all official 

or t\)rma"l historical record. Through the courtesy of Prof. Alexander 
Anderson of the University of Edinhurgh, Scotland, and of Dr. Hew 

213 




or.I) IIKM) LICIITMOUSE. WUKKK .MK. 
MAC LAV WKOTK MTCll OF HIS HISTORY 



THE STORY OF A HISTORY 



Morrison of the Edinburgh library archives, Mr. Maclay discovered 
documents showing that hitherto unrecorded American armed craft 

had, within two weeks, in March, 
1/79, attacked four of the 
enemy's vessels in the Irish Sea. 
In was in 1895 that Mr. Ma- 
clay resigned from the editorial 
staff of the New York Tribune 
and retired into a lonely light- 
house on the shores of Long 
Island Sound (as lighthouse 
keeper) in order to concentrate 
his literary energy on his fa- 
vorite theme. Here, surrounded 
by his family, he remained five 
years. In September, 1900, he 
secured a transfer to a clerkship 
in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 
order to study more intimately 
the men and ships of the navy. 

On December 23, 1893, ^Ir. 
Maclay married and has four 
sons, each of whom, he declares, 
will serve in the navy. '* As the 
personnel of the navy is now con- 
stituted," he said, " with the 
chance of enlisted men for pro- 
motion to the commissioned 
rank, I cannot think of any pro- 
fession or mercantile pursuit 
that offers a more attractive 
future to the average American 
youth of refinement, education 
and good family. Even if the young man does not make it his life 
work, a four years' enlistment in our navy is a most ualnablc supple- 
mental education for the high school or college graduate." 

THE PUBLISHERS. 
Greenlawn, N. Y., August, 1910. 




MR. MACLAY'S FOUR SONS, WHO 

ARE " PREPARING " FOR 

THE NAVY. 



y 



NAVY BLUE COMPANY 

Greenlawn, N. Y. 



RD-94 



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